



*-..^' 



ITTLE 








Little Folks of 
North America 




From Copyrighted Stcrcograpli l^ L'u'lciwuud & UndcrwuLMl, X. V 

A Little Indian Boy. 



Little Folks of 
North America 



STORIES ABOUT CHILDREN LIVING IN 

THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF 

NORTH AMERICA 



BY 
MARY HAZLETON WADE 

Illustrated by reproductions from Photographs 




W. A. WILDE COMPANY 

BOSTON CHICAGO 






Copyright, 1909 
By W. a. Wilde Company 

All Rights Reserved 



Little Folks of North America 



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Contents 



CHAPTER 

I. Little Folks of Iceland 


PAGE 

13 


II. 


Little Folks of Greenland .... 


26 


III. 


Little Folks of Alaska 


55 


IV. 


Little Folks of Canada 


80 


V. 


Little Folks of Labrador .... 


116 


VI. 


Little Folks of Newfoundland . 


120 


VII. 


Little Folks of the United States 


128 


VIII. 


Little Folks of Mexico 


. 179 


IX. 


Little Folks of Central America . . 


206 


X. 


Little Folks of the West Indies . 


. 214 



Illustrations 

Page 
A Little Indian Boy Frontispiece 

An Eskimo Mother and Baby 30 

An Eskimo Village in Summer 52 

An Eskimo Village in Alaska 60 ' 

An Alaskan Village Showing Indian Totem Poles . . 74 

Little Canadian Indian Children 96 

Picking Cotton on a Georgia Plantation 144 

How They Harvest Wheat on the Prairies 152 

Children Working in the Cotton Factory in a Big City . 174 

A Mexican Village 190 



Foreword 

YOU all know the story of Columbus — how, 
more than four hundred years ago, he 
sailed from Spain out into the west; and 
also how the people, as they watched his ships 
fading from sight, believed they would never 
look upon the fleet again, for the brave sailors 
who manned it were moving into an unknown 
world whose dangers no one could measure. 

You also remember what happened before 
Columbus returned from that long voyage — that 
a new continent was discovered where strange 
people of a race before unheard-of were living 
the life of savages, and that the great sailor, be- 
lieving he had entered the waters of India, 
named these red men, Indians. 

Instead of reaching India, as he supposed, he 
had brought to light a new and great continent 
— so vast that it embraced all climates; rich, 
moreover, in mines and forests, lakes and rivers, 
high mountains, fertile plains and valleys. 
And there were none to enjoy all these beautiful 

9 



10 Little Folks of North America 

gifts of God save tribes of red men, except in 
the far north the Eskimos in scattered villages. 
They, too, like the Indians, were savages who 
knew nothing of the ways of white men. They 
lived in small settlements along the ice-covered 
shores of the ocean. 

After Columbus had crossed the Atlantic and 
discovered this New World, other ships soon 
followed in the course he had marked, and the 
people of Europe settled in one place after an- 
other. At first they made their homes near the 
shores of the ocean. This was partly through 
fear of the red men who were not pleased at the 
thought of these new neighbors, so different from 
themselves. As years went by, however, the 
newcomers moved farther and farther into the 
west, driving the Indians and the wild beasts be- 
fore them, until now the homes of the white 
men are found throughout the land. People of 
unlike faiths and speaking diflferent languages 
cross the ocean in shiploads, for they feel that 
when America is reached they will find freedom 
and happiness. 

The Indians who are still left in the country 
are slowly learning the ways of the white men. 
They are taught in schools by white teachers. 



Foreword 1 1 

They live in houses instead of the wigwams 
which were their former homes. They dress in 
white men's clothes. They even plant gardens 
and care for their farms in the way of civilized 
people. 

There are many Negroes in North America 
also, but they are found mostly in the southern 
part of the United States. They were first 
brought as slaves from Africa, but are now free 
and independent. Although they were once 
savages like the Indians, they have been quick 
to imitate and have easily fallen into the ways of 
the white men. Thus the red and the black 
races, the white and the yellow, can all be found 
at home in North America, abiding together in 
peace and comfort as the children of One Great 
Father should do. 



Little Folks 
of North America 

CHAPTER I 
Little Folks of Iceland 

IN the far northeast corner of North America 
lies the island of Iceland where little Dan- 
ish children live far from the rest of the 
world. It is very cold in that northern country, 
yet the presence of volcanoes there and the lava 
that spreads over much of the country tell the 
story that ages ago the island was slowly built up 
from the lava that flowed from volcanoes rising 
up out of the bed of the ocean. 

However that may be, the boys and girls of 
Iceland are happy little people who laugh and 
sing, dance and play as merrily as children who 
live where the sun shines all the year round and 
the seasons chase each other so rapidly that 
Mother Nature is constantly preparing new de- 
lights for them. 

13 



14 Little Folks of North America 

Away back in the ninth century a great chief 
called Nadodd left Europe in search of adven- 
ture. When he had sailed for a long time he 
came in sight of a land covered with snow. It 
seemed a cold, bleak place, but he landed, never- 
theless, and gave the country the name of Snow- 
land. 

After Nadodd came two Norse chiefs who had 
quarreled with their king and left Norway to 
seek a new home. Although they found Snow- 
land or rather Iceland, as it is now called, cold 
and desolate as Nadodd had done, they decided 
to settle there and other people from Norway 
followed them and built homes for themselves 
and their families along the coast. 

These things and many more are written down 
in a big book treasured by the Icelanders to-day, 
— how little children were born to the settlers, 
how they were ruled by their chiefs, and how, 
after a while, one of their people went back to 
Europe and listened to the teachings of the 
Christian religion. He gave up his belief in 
heathen gods, and when he came back to Iceland 
he converted the settlers. From that time they, 
too, were Christians and had Christian ministers 



Little Folks of Iceland 15 

among them who taught and helped their little 
ones and themselves. 

As time went by Norway, and with it Iceland, 
came under the rule of Denmark. Afterwards 
it became separate again, but Iceland did not, 
and is to this day looked upon as belonging to 
the Danes. Most of the children, however, by 
reading in the famous old book of their people, 
can trace their families back to the two Nor- 
wegian chiefs and their followers who were the 
first settlers in Iceland. 

The children of Iceland live so far north that 
they know only a short summer. The days then 
are very long and there is scarcely any night. 
In the month of June there is really no night at 
all and there is no way of telling, except by the 
clock and their own sleepiness, when it is time 
to go to bed. The winters are quite the opposite. 
They are very long and bitter cold. Scarcely 
any of the time does the sun shine, yet the long 
nights are beautiful, for the moon and stars shine 
brightly and the northern lights, or aurora bore- 
alis, flash over the heavens in a wonderful way 
not seen in warmer lands. 

On the long winter evenings the boys and girls 



i6 Little Folks of North America 

are never happier than when listening to the 
stories that have been handed down from father 
to son for hundreds of years. They call these 
stories sagas. Some of them are legends, and 
others tell about the lives of people who lived in 
Iceland from the beginning of its history. 
There are many poems, too, which the little Ice- 
landers learn ''by heart," and which they repeat 
in a half-singing tone, after the way of their peo- 
ple. These were written in the long-ago by war- 
riors called "skalds." They tell of battles and 
brave deeds and lovely ladies, and the children of 
to-day think them so beautiful that many of them 
try to write little poems themselves. This 
pleases their parents greatly and makes them feel 
quite proud that their own little ones are follow- 
ing in the steps of their ancestors. 

Geysers and Glaciers. 

Iceland is never without snow and ice. On 
the warmest summer day the children can look 
on glaciers, or rivers of ice, that flow so slowly 
toward the sea from the inland country that one 
does not see them moving at all. 

These glaciers look like broad fields of broken 
ice, piled up in strange, rough shapes. The sum- 



Little Folks of Iceland 17 

mer sun melts the ice ever so little, and those who 
venture near the edge find rills of v^ater flowing 
down the sides of the great cakes and boulders. 
As the glaciers enter the sea masses of ice some- 
times break away, and turning over and over in 
the deep water, right themselves at last and sail 
out to sea as the icebergs that are often met by 
sailors on their way across the ocean. 

*'We have geysers as well as glaciers," the chil- 
dren of Iceland will tell you, and they are glad to 
show their knowledge of them to the travelers 
who visit that distant land. A geyser is a boil- 
ing spring which bursts up out of the ground like 
a fountain, sometimes with such force that the 
water rises into the air higher than the tallest 
building you have ever seen. 

There are other kinds of hot springs, too, in 
the country, where the water simply bubbles up. 
There is one large town in Iceland called Reik- 
javik, which is the capital of the island, and 
about a mile and a half away there is a hot spring 
where the washing is done for the people of the 
town. 

Almost every day women go there from Reik- 
javik with hand-carts filled with soiled cloth- 
ing. When they reach the spring they roll up 



i8 Little Folks of North America 

their sleeves, tuck up their skirts, and begin the 
scrubbing and rinsing, the boiling and wringing 
that end in making the clothes as white as snow. 
From time to time they stop to drink coffee and 
have a friendly chat, but all the washing is done 
in the open air, without need of stove or fire to 
help the workers. 

Sheds have been built near the spring where 
the ironing is afterwards done. Then the clothes 
are neatly packed in the little carts and taken 
back to the town to be returned to the owners. 

The little Icelanders are very fond of their 
waterfalls, some of which are very beautiful. 
The country is so rough and rocky that the 
streams often plunge over step lava cliffs and 
fall with a loud roar to the depths below. 

There are so few sounds to be heard, because 
there are no railroads or large factories in the 
whole country, that the children like to visit 
these waterfalls and listen to the water as it 
plunges downwards over the cliffs. Then they 
return to the quiet farmhouses to play with their 
lambs and dogs, and to dream of the children of 
other lands far away where life is so different. 



Little Folks of Iceland 19 

In the Homes. 

The fathers of the little Icelanders support 
their families by fishing, by raising cattle and 
sheep, and by hunting the birds that make their 
homes on the island during the summer. 

Few trees grow in that cold land, so the homes 
are generally built of turf and lava, neatly 
painted red and thatched with sod. Small gar- 
dens are planted as soon as the long winter is 
over, and there the boys help in planting cab- 
bages and lettuce, radishes and parsley, flax and 
turnips. A few potatoes are sometimes raised, 
too, but only those vegetables that will grow fast 
ripen in that cold northern land. Short, thick 
grass grows near the little homes, which are 
usually built in the valleys protected from the 
cold winds by the hills around them. There 
the men tend their flocks of sheep and herds of 
cattle which graze on the grass in summer and 
in winter eat the hay which their masters have 
gathered for them. 

The children of Iceland are rather small, but 
they are quite strong for their size. They have 
yellow hair and blue eyes and are brought up 
to be gentle and polite. On week-days they 



20 Little Folks of North America 

go to school where they are taught very care- 
fully, and on Sundays they go to church with 
their fathers and mothers, where they sing 
hymns very slowly and listen to long sermons 
by their good pastor. Sometimes the church 
is too far away to walk the whole distance. 
Then the whole family ride on ponies to the 
place of worship, and often, if they have come 
a very long ways, they are treated to cake and 
coffee at the minister's house before they start 
out again for home. 

The people are obliged to dress very warmly, 
and so the women of each household are busy, 
early and late, carding and spinning the wool 
from the sheep and weaving it into soft, thick 
garments for their families. 

In every home you will be sure to find the 
women's fingers moving busily at their work, 
while the loom and spinning-wheel seems to be 
constantly in motion. 

Almost every home contains many children, 
who eat fish and drink milk day after day, with 
little change of food throughout the year. Only 
the richer families can have bread, for the flour 
out of which it is made, as well as the coffee and 
chocolate which even the poorest people man- 



Little Folks of Iceland 21 

age to buy, must come in ships from Europe. 
Every one, however, can have cakes made of a 
kind of moss, or lichen, which grows on the 
island. Some of it is sent to other countries to 
use in medicine, and is known as Iceland moss. 
The children are often sent to gather it for their 
mothers, who dry it and grind it to powder and 
then make it into cakes which are boiled and 
then eaten with milk. 

In the summer time the boys and girls hunt 
for birds' eggs of which they are very fond, and 
sometimes their fathers kill a sheep or cow, 
which furnishes fresh meat for several days. 

The children love their dogs which are often 
very pretty and are petted a good deal. They 
help their masters care for the sheep and are 
very faithful. Sometimes the cows wander a 
long ways in search of grass, but with the ap- 
proach of night they come home to be milked 
and cared for. The ewes are milked, too, and 
their young masters and mistresses have no idea 
how strange this must seem to many travelers. 
Even the little children learn to ride the stout, 
patient ponies, and if they have an errand to do 
for their parents they seldom think of walking, 
but on to the ponies' backs they spring, and away 



22 Little Folks of North America 

they go across the snow-fields and over the roads 
till they reach the place for which they are 
bound. 

The little girls are taught to knit and spin and 
do fine needle work. They help make the 
clothes for the family, which are of the same 
fashion, year after year. The mother always 
wears a black cloth dress with white under waist 
showing in front, a snowy apron, and on her 
head is sure to be a black cap with long tassel 
and a silver ornament. If it is very cold she 
winds a shawl around her head. Her daughters 
dress much as she does, except that they wear 
no caps till they are thirteen or fourteen years 
old. 

The boys help in the work of the farm and go 
hunting and fishing with their fathers. Herds 
of reindeer wander over the island and their 
flesh makes a pleasant change in the daily fare, 
while the skins furnish thick, warm coats for the 
Icelanders. There are also foxes, but they and 
the reindeer are almost the only wild creatures, 
with the exception of the birds, found in the 
whole country. 

There are many kinds of birds, — gulls, ptar- 
migans, swans, and wild geese, all come to the 



Little Folks of Iceland 23 

island to lay their eggs and raise their young, 
but the most precious of all are the eider-ducks 
whose bodies are covered with soft thick down. 
The mother eider-duck lines her nest with this 
down which she plucks out from her own breast, 
thus making a soft and comfortable home for 
the baby birds. After they are hatched the 
hunters go about from nest to nest, collecting 
the down which is taken home and spread ou' 
in the sun to dry. Then it is tied up in bags and 
sold in the town. Some of it is sent away to 
other countries and made into the eider-down 
quilts which are sold for a large price. 

Getting Fish. 

During the summer every village along the 
coast is full of busy people. The men and boys 
sail or row out to the places were cod and halibut 
are plentiful, and there they fish from morning 
till night, when they bring home the ''catch" 
which they give into the care of their wives and 
daughters. At these times the women wear 
long waterproof aprons and thick woolen gloves. 
They, too, are busy all day long cleaning and 
splitting the fish at large tanks near the water's 
edge, then salting and drying them for their 



24 Little Folks of North America 

own use during the coming year, or to be 
packed and sent to Reikjavik from which they 
are shipped to other countries. The fish, to- 
gether with butter and 'ponies, are the principal 
things sent out from Iceland, and the ships that 
come to receive them bring the sugar, coffee and 
chocolate, the dishes and tools necessary to the 
simple housekeeping of the Icelanders. 

The Cave of Surtur. 

There are many caves in Iceland, some of 
which are used by the farmers for storing their 
hay and housing their cattle. The most won- 
derful of them all is the large cave of Surtur, 
whose floor is carpeted with snow and ice. 

The visitor enters a long hall and the dim 
light of his torch makes him think at first that 
he is looking at rows of statues. But they are 
pillars of ice and snow which reach up from 
the floor and have taken upon themselves many 
queer forms. Farther on in the hall bars of ice 
form a large screen before the eyes of the trav- 
eler. On every side new wonders meet his eyes 
as he goes farther and farther underground till 
at last he longs for the daylight and turns back, 



Little Folks of Iceland 25 

glad indeed when he has reached the mouth of 
the cave once more. 

Many people who have visited Iceland say 
that the grandest sights in the whole world are 
to be seen in that island. The hills of lava with 
the ice-fields stretching between them, the gey- 
sers bursting forth out of the ground with a 
sound of thunder, the lofty volcanoes that look 
like sleeping giants of snow and ice, the great 
caves whose stalactites are coated with ice, all 
these things and many more make Iceland a land 
of wonder to those who visit that lonely island. 



CHAPTER II 
Little Folks of Greenland 

The Coming of Eric the Red 

WEST of Ireland is the largest island in 
the world. It is called Greenland, but 
the boys and girls who live there have 
little reason to know it by such a name, for it is 
a country cf snow and ice where fierce winds are 
blowing the greater part of the year and where 
the frost king rules even in the summer-time. 
Long ago there were brave sailors in northern 
Europe called Norsemen, who ventured out into 
the western waters farther than any other known 
people at that time. Some of them, as you know, 
sailed as far as Iceland where they settled and 
made a home for themselves. 

By and by one of these settlers sailed still far- 
ther into the west- Fierce storms arose and 
strong winds blew his ship till he came in sight 

26 



Little Folks of Greenland 27 

of a land whose shores were bound in ice. At 
last the storm passed; then he turned his ship 
about and sailed for home. 

When he reached Iceland he told of what he 
had seen. Among those who listened to him was 
another daring sailor, Eric the Red. 

Not long afterwards Eric the Red killed an- 
other man in a quarrel, and on account of this 
wrong deed he was told that he could not stay in 
Iceland, but must leave his home for two years 
at least. 

He now thought of the story he had heard of 
a land farther west. He said to himself, ''I will 
seek that country and perhaps I will find a home 
there to my liking." 

He set out with a brave heart and sailed on till 
at last he saw before him a bare and desolate 
land. He steered his ship past great icebergs 
and floating masses of ice and entered a harbor. 

It was not a pleasant country in which to make 
a home. There was no person to greet him ; not 
a single tree to offer its shade. Yet he made 
himself as comfortable as possible and built a 
house of stone against the side of a steep cliff. 
He fished in the icy waters and hunted over the 
snow-covered fields; thus he and his few com- 



28 Little Folks of North America 

panions got enough food to keep themselves from 
starving. 

Two winters passed in this new home and 
Eric the Red, who had been used to hardship, 
enjoyed himself because he was free to do as he 
pleased and there were no enemies to disturb 
him. In fact, all the time he and his followers 
were in Greenland they met no other people, 
and so they believed they were the only ones liv- 
ing in that ice-bound country. In their wan- 
derings, however, they discovered that there 
were many high mountains, deep and narrow 
bays, and glaciers. 

The time came when Eric the Red could go 
back to Iceland. On his return he said to him- 
self, '^I will say that I found a pleasant home 
in the west. I will give the place the pleasant 
name of Greenland. Then some of the people 
will wish to go back with me and settle there." 

Eric the Red painted such a delightful pic- 
ture of his stay in the distant land that a goodly 
company started out with him in twenty-five 
ships when he returned to Greenland. Some of 
these ships were wrecked; others were driven 
back by fierce winds. Fourteen, however, man- 
aged to pass the dangerous icebergs and the great 



Little Folks of Greenland 29 

masses of floating ice and entered a narrow 
harbor. 

The people landed on the desolate shore and 
were soon busy building houses in which to live. 
There was no lumber because there were no 
trees, so they had to use stones. 

Afterwards small gardens were dug and 
planted. Sheds were built of stone where the 
sheep and oxen the people had brought with 
them could be protected from the biting cold 
of the long winter and the fearful storms that 
raged there. 

Other settlers followed the first ones and made 
new homes for themselves on the western coast 
of Greenland, not far from the place chosen by 
the first-comers. Here, in rough stone houses, 
little children were born and grew up to be men 
and women. 

These children did not know the taste of 
bread. They lived mostly on the meat of seals, 
walruses, and reindeer, the berries they picked 
in summer, and the eggs of the wild birds that 
flew in great flocks over the country when the 
long, cold winter was over. 

They had many a good time, though. They 
romped in the frosty air; they slid on the ice; 



30 Little Folks of North America 

they petted their lambs and played games; and 
then, when evening came, they gathered about 
their fathers to listen to wonderful tales of ad- 
ventures with wild animals and of fights for life 
among icebergs and glaciers. Often they must 
have held their breath, and their blood must 
have been stirred as they thought, "Soon we will 
grow up and we, too, will dare what our fathers 
have dared." 

The Eskimos. 

More than three hundred years passed by. 
Then the children of the settlers suddenly dis- 
covered that they were not the only ones living 
in Greenland. Not far to the north there were 
other boys and girls with yellow skins, black 
eyes, round faces and mouths ever ready to 
stretch in smiles. Far different, indeed, they 
looked from the Norse children with their fair 
hair and blue eyes. 

These little strangers spoke an odd-sounding 
language and when they pointed to themselves 
they said, "Innuits," meaning '^people." No 
doubt they and their parents had thought them- 
selves the only people in the world. The 
Norsemen called them Skraellings; but long 




From Copyrighted Stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. 

An Eskimo Mother and Baby, 



Little Folks of Greenland 31 

afterwards, when other white men came to 
Greenland and noticed the manner of living of 
the natives, they gave them the name of Eskimos 
which means, ^'Eaters of raw meat." To this 
day we know them as Eskimos. 

Not long after they met with the Eskimos 
the white settlers, with their wives and children, 
disappeared from Greenland. No one knows 
the reason. Perhaps they all died from a ter- 
rible sickness that visited them at that time. 
There are some who think they were killed by 
the natives. At any rate, there were no more 
white people in Greenland for two hundred 
years and the little Eskimos lived on as they 
always had done. 

The homes of these children are built to-day 
just as they were in that far-away time when 
the Norsemen first saw them. They spend the 
long cold winter in stone huts. The stones are 
packed closely together and the chinks are 
stuffed so tightly with turf that the sharpest wind 
can not make its way inside. A low passage 
into the house is also built of stones, but it is 
so low that even the little children must crawl 
on their hands and knees when they go in and 
out of the house. 



32 Little Folks of North America 

Can you think of the reason for this? It is 
because the wind must be kept out of the home 
at all costs. 

When the children have once crept inside, 
there is not much room over their heads even 
now, since the house-walls themselves are not 
more than six or eight feet high. The light 
is very dim, for the small windows are made 
of the bowels of seals, as the Eskimos do not 
have the glass we think so necessary; so they 
take the best thing they can procure. 

A little more light is given by queer, smoky 
lamps which are stoves as well. Women are 
busy tending these all the time, or they would 
smoke so badly that even the Eskimos, who are 
used to them, could not breathe the air without 
choking. 

Each one of these stove-lamps is made of a 
piece of sandstone hollowed out somewhat in 
the shape of a dustpan. Pieces of blubber are 
placed in the bottom and strips of dried moss 
are set up along one side for wicks. Here the 
mothers of the Eskimo children do all their 
cooking, and here the boys and girls must gather 
when they wish to warm their fingers if Jack 
Frost has pinched them. 



Little Folks of Greenland 33 

Heavy seal or bear skins which have been 
cured and made ready for use hang down from 
the walls, making them doubly warm. 

Along the sides of the hut are platforms where 
the children sit with their parents and where 
they stretch themselves among piles of furs for 
the night's rest. These platforms are usually 
made of wood, one of the most precious things 
the Eskimos possess. Since no trees grow in 
Greenland, the only wood the people had in the 
long ago drifted to their shores. Often it came 
from the wrecks of vessels that ventured into the 
dangerous northern waters after whales. Now- 
adays, however, the Eskimos get lumber from 
white traders in exchange for oil and furs. For 
about four months of the winter the sun does not 
show his face at all. The children must be very 
glad that during that period the moon shines 
brightly one week out of every four. That is 
the time for the best fun, — skating and coasting 
by moonlight when the snowfields and the ice- 
bound shores glisten like the most wonderful 
fairyland you can possibly imagine. 

Before they venture from their homes their 
loving mothers see that they put on their bird- 
skin shirts with the soft feathers worn next 



34 Little Folks of North America 

the skin. Then there are stockings of hare or 
dog skin, and high boots of sealskin. 

It would be rather hard at first for you to tell 
an Eskimo girl from a boy for all the people 
of the snowland wear trousers which are, of 
course, much warmer than skirts would be. 
These trousers, like the boots, are made of heavy 
skins with the fur on the inside. 

The upper part of the body is covered with a 
short fur blouse. A fur hood and mittens com- 
plete the outdoor dress. No suit could be better 
for traveling over the snow or playing on the 
icy hillsides than the Greenland mothers make 
ior their little ones. 

Hunting for Food. 

Sometimes the little Eskimos and their parents 
feast nearly all day long. This is when their 
fathers have been successful in the hunt and 
there is plenty of seal and walrus meat on hand. 
But there are other times when many hours pass 
by without food and they do not know how much 
longer they must wait before they can satisfy 
their hunger. 

Sometimes the men are away from home for 



Little Folks of Greenland 35 

days together, searching the shore for the food 
their wives and little ones need so much. When 
at last they have been successful and returned 
with their loads, the children run out with their 
mothers to meet the hunters and take care of 
the precious prize. The women are armed with 
long knives with which they quickly cut away 
the skins. The meat is cut up, and with shouts 
of laughter the children crawl through the nar- 
row passage into the hut and gather around their 
mothers, as pieces of the meat are placed in stone 
dishes and hung over the lamps to cook. 

It may be, that while the children sit eagerly 
watching for some seal-blood soup to be pre- 
pared, the women throw them pieces of blubber 
which they eat greedily. 

All this time the men are stretched about on 
the low platforms, joking and telling stories 
while they wait for the feast to begin. As they 
wait, some of them busy their fingers carving 
toys out of walrus-teeth for the children, — tiny 
reindeer, seals, sledges, birds or muskoxen. 

When the dinner is ready a large dish of food 
is placed in the middle of the floor, the big folks 
and little sit around in a circle and help them- 



36 Little Folks of North America 

selves with their fingers. After dinner come 
songs and dances in which the children take their 
part. 

It is very likely that over on a low shelf a 
mother dog is lying with her puppies, and the 
children go to her from time to time and play 
with their cunning little pets. The Eskimos are 
fond of their dogs, and are very careful of the 
puppies, which are brought up in the house with 
their own children from the time when they 
are born till they are big enough to take care 
of themselves. 

Eskimo Dogs. 

The boys and girls of the far north would 
be very lonely without their trusty dogs. They 
play with the puppies during the long winter 
days. Then, as soon as their little pets are old 
enough, the boys begin to train them. First, 
the animal must be taught to obey their young 
masters. Then collars are made, and with long 
straps of leather, these are fastened to low sledges 
made of drift wood and walrus lines. The 
sledge is drawn by a number of dogs, each of 
which is fastened by a separate strap. 

When the master of the pack is ready for 



Little Folks of Greenland 37 

a ride, he throws himself upon the sledge, cracks 
his whip, and the dogs start wildly off with 
leaps and bounds. 

On goes the sledge, now over a smooth sheet 
of frozen snow, and again bumping up and down 
as the dogs dash over rough hillocks of ice. It 
is enough to take one's breath away. 

An Eskimo boy is much pleased when his 
father tells him he is getting old enough to have 
a team of dogs for his very own. He picks out 
the brightest and smartest one of his puppies to 
be the leader of the new pack and trains him 
with the greatest care. The young dog in his 
turn seems proud of the honor paid him and 
soon begins to rule among his fellows like a 
king. 

Poor Eskimo dogs! They have a hard lot. 
All through the long winter they are seldom 
fed more than three or four times a week. Only 
the mother dogs with their puppies are allowed 
in the house. The rest of the pack spend most 
of the time outdoors although they are some- 
times allowed in the passageway, or a snow hut 
is built for them near the house of their master. 
Their hair, however, is long and thick and warm, 
and this protects them from the winds and storm. 



38 Little Folks of North America 

They will stretch out on a bed of snow and 
sleep comfortably hour after hour in the coldest 
weather. One of their favorite resting places 
is the top of their master's hut; but when the 
wind blows hard they prefer to creep into their 
snow house and stay there till the weather is 
once more calm. 

As soon as the Eskimo boy is old enough to 
hold a tiny bow his parents put one in his chubby 
hands. He is so pleased when he is able to set 
an arrow and send it speeding against a mark 
on the wall of the hut. When he strikes it for 
the first time the place rings with his shouts of 
delight. When he is a little older he takes les- 
sons from his father in shaping harpoons and 
spearheads. He is now getting ready for the 
hunting that is to be his work in life. 

While he is learning the ways of a hunter, 
his sister also has her lessons. Her mother and 
grandmother are busy women, tanning the skins 
the men bring in, and making them into warm 
garments for the family. The girls must there- 
fore learn to sew with coarse bone needles and 
heavy thread made from the sinews of the rein- 
deer. They must also help in chewing skin with 
their strong white teeth. This is to make the 



Little Folks of Greenland 39 

skin soft and comfortable for the wearer, but it 
is a long, hard task. Many an Eskimo woman 
wears her teeth down to stubs by the time she 
is an old woman. 

After Seals. 

When autumn sets in, the head of the family 
watches the ice in the bay. As soon as it is 
frozen hard enough, he will begin his hunt for 
seals. He clothes himself in fur from head to 
foot, takes his lance from the wall, and hangs 
over one arm a little stool made of small pieces 
of wood bound together with leather straps. He 
must not forget his hunting knife, nor a fur 
blanket which he throws over his shoulders. 
At last he is off. He walks quickly down to the 
edge of the bay and looks keenly about over its 
surface. Perhaps he decides to follow the coast 
for some distance, as farther along the ice seems 
firmer. 

On he moves till he comes to a place where 
he can trust himself. With leaps and bounds he 
springs from one cake of ice to another till he 
reaches a place where the water of the outer bay 
is frozen solid. He keeps his eyes fastened on 
the ice. Ah! he has discovered a small hole. 



40 Little Folks of North America 

He thinks, ''Now I have found the home of 
a family of seals. This is certainly their breath- 
ing place." 

He spreads his fur blanket on the ice close 
to the hole. In the middle of it he puts his 
stool, and then, with lance in hand, he sits down 
to watch and wait. 

It may be that in a short time a seal's nose 
will appear at this hole to get a breath of fresh 
air, or perhaps hours will pass before this hap- 
pens. 

At last the watching hunter is rewarded. He 
thrusts his lance suddenly down through the 
hole, and if he has made no mistake it has pierced 
the seal below. The lance disappears under the 
ice, but the hunter has taken care to fasten 
leather lines to the blunt end, and this he holds 
tightly in his hands. 

Now he must be very careful. He takes his 
hunting knife from his sheath and carefully cuts 
away the ice from around the breathing hole. 
He must make a place so large that the seal's 
body can be drawn up through, to the surface. 
At last his prey lies before him but the animal 
is still alive and must be killed. 

As soon as this is done, the man hastens back 



Little Folks of Greenland 41 

to the shore near his home where some of his 
faithful dogs have been harnessed to the sledge 
and are patiently awaiting him. 

He unties the strap by which they are fastened 
to a rock. Then, with delighted howls, the dogs 
rush along with their master to the place where 
the dead seal is lying. It is placed on the sledge, 
and in a short time is in the hands of the hunter's 
wife,, who takes off the skin and cuts up the 
meat for the hungry family. 

Nannook, the Bear. 

During the long evenings the children are 
never tired of listening to the stories of the big 
white bear. It is Nannook who makes her win- 
ter home against the side of a steep cliflf. Here 
the snow drifts about her and shuts her in from 
the outside world; at the same time the warm 
breath from her great body melts the snow next 
her, leaving a small empty space. Here she 
sleeps and here her little cubs are born. 

Sometimes the bear is caught by means of a 
trap which the Eskimo hunter has built of stone 
set up in a square. There is a small opening 
inside of which a piece of blubber is placed. 
When Nannook snaps at the blubber, down falls 



42 Little Folks of North America 

a heavy stone and the animal is made a prisoner. 

Sometimes the hunter comes upon the track of 
a bear when he has no companion except his 
trusty dogs. But he is not afraid. He urges 
them on and the sledge dashes along with the 
greatest speed. The master of the team hardly 
needs to guide, for the dogs are eager to follow 
the scent. And now the prey is in sight. Per- 
haps it is a mother bear with two cubs. She 
sees her enemy and turns to flee, but her little 
ones cannot run fast and she stops again and 
again for them. Every moment the dogs are 
gaining upon her. At last she sees it is of no 
use and takes her stand to meet the attack. 

The team is upon her now. The hunter leaps 
from the sledge and rushes towards the mother 
bear with spear in hand. She rises upon her 
hind legs and opens her mouth with an angry 
growl. One blow of her paw would be enough 
to kill the man if he gave her time to strike, 
but he makes a sudden thrust into her heart with 
his spear before she has a chance to do this. 

It may be that the spear fails to reach its mark, 
or that the bear breaks it with one angry blow. 
She is furious now, and it would go hard with 
the hunter if the faithful dogs were not already 



Little Folks of Greenland 43 

springing upon the huge animal like a pack of 
wolves. With their help she is overcome, and 
falls at last dying to the ground. Then it is 
an easy matter to kill the poor little cubs, which 
all through the fight have been crying piteousely. 
Many a time an Eskimo hunter has met his 
death when on a bear hunt. Many a time, too, 
he has received fearful wounds that have made 
him a cripple for the rest of his life. Yet he 
is a brave man and is ever ready to join a hunt 
in search of Nannook, the big white bear. 

After the Walrus. 

The Eskimo boys are not only eager for bear 
stories, but they love to hear their fathers tell 
of the battles with the big walrus, whose home 
is in the sea. It weighs nearly a thousand 
pounds. It has a thick, tough skin, and long 
tusks of ivory. When a number of walruses are 
together they will often turn on the hunters with 
fury. Then the men must move quickly and 
fight bravely, or they may lose their lives. 

The best time for a walrus hunt is when the 
moon is shining brightly. The children look on 
eagerly while the men get knives and lances 
ready, for perhaps news has just come that wal- 



44 Little Folks of North America 

ruses have been seen on the ice floes miles away 
up the coast. The dogs are harnessed to the 
sledges and the party start off. 

One, two, and even three days may pass with 
no sign of the returning hunters. At last the 
sound of barking dogs is heard in the distance. 
The women and children rush out of the huts, 
and if the moon has set or the clouds have hidden 
her light, they carry torches and hurry to meet 
the hunters. 

The news may be good and the sledges loaded 
with ivory and walrus meat. But perhaps the 
men have not been successful, and have only to 
tell of a long search, with no prize gained. It 
may be that one of the men has been wounded 
by an enraged walrus, or has been drawn into 
the icy water and has narrowly escaped drown- 
ing. At any rate, there is much to tell to the 
eager listeners. 

A walrus is much larger and heavier than a 
seal. Besides this, it has two strong tusks with 
which to defend itself; and although it is hunted 
in much the same way, it is far more dangerous 
work to kill a walrus and land it safely on the 
ice. One man seldom hunts walruses alone. 



Little Folks of Greenland 45 

The Narwhal. 

Eskimos never live far from the shore. It 
would not be safe to do so, for most of their food 
is obtained from the sea. Besides seals and wbI- 
ruses, other large creatures are hunted there. 
There are different kinds of whales; there are 
porpoises and swordfish ; more important still is 
the narwhal with its long ivory tusk pointing 
straight out from its head. It is an ugly-look- 
ing creature, but the Eskimos think only of the 
beautiful white ivory and the oil to be obtained, 
besides abundance of delicious meat. 

As soon as November comes, the men begin 
to look for narwhals. A party of hunters get 
into their boats and paddle out into the deep 
waters of the bay. As they paddle along, as soon 
as a narwhal appears in sight they hurry toward 
it with all the speed possible. Each one is eager 
to be the first one to attack, for he is the one to 
receive most honor when the fight is over and 
the prize gained. Great care must be used as 
the hunters draw near the narwhal for that long 
tusk could make a hole through a boat in an in- 
stant. 



46 Little Folks of North America 

Springtime. 

The long winter is over at last. The men 
have hunted many of the days, but they have 
spent much time making lines and traps for 
the warmer days to come; also in mending 
and sharpening their weapons. The women 
have been busy making clothes for the family 
and tending the lamps, while the happy, loving 
children have helped their parents a little,- but 
mostly they have been coasting and playing 
games on the snowfields. They have paid visits 
to friends in other villages ; they have had many 
a feast ; sometimes, alas ! they have gone without 
food for days at a time. They have sung and 
danced, and watched the beautiful northern 
lights flash over the sky. They have listened to 
legends of their big brother, the moon, and his 
sister the sun. Sometimes, too, they have heard 
stories about the great ice-sheet that stretches all 
over the mountains and plains of the inland 
country. They trembled as they were told that 
terrible beings have their home on that inland 
ice and they are quite sure they would not ven, 
ture there for the world. 

Now that spring has come, they are ready for 



Little Folks of Greenland 47 

a season of sunshine. They are glad, too, to 
seek a new home and new adventures. Yes, the 
spring has come and flocks of birds are flying 
overhead to bring the good news. 

The boys help their fathers take off the roofs 
of the winter houses and open them up to the 
sunshine and fresh air. All the people in the 
village are going to move. 

Skin tents are packed on the sledges, together 
with lamps and the few stone dishes they pos- 
sess. For four whole months the Eskimos will 
camp out and move from place to place in 
search of reindeer and birds on the land, or fish 
in the waters of the bay. 

Sometimes in the early spring or fall the Es- 
kimo children live in still different homes from 
their winter huts of stone or the summer tents. 
These are the snow houses, which the men can 
build very quickly. 

If they are off on a long hunt, these snow 
houses are useful, for they are warm and com- 
fortable in the worst storm or the coldest 
weather. Big blocks of solid snow are cut and 
piled up in the shape of a bee-hive. A small 
doorway is left open which can be filled with 
another snow-block when the people wish it 



48 Little Folks of North America 

When the house is finished loose snow is sifted 
over it and every crack filled up so that the 
wind cannot make its way inside. The stone 
lamp is set up in the middle or at the side of the 
hut. A bench is made of snow and covered 
with furs, and the family are ready to go to 
housekeeping. 

As soon as the Eskimo children see the birds 
flying in the springtime they begin to think of 
the fun they will have hunting for eggs. 
The boys get their bows and arrows ready at 
this time, for they will shoot dozens and dozens 
of the birds before the summer is over. 

There are many kinds of these birds, most of 
which like to build their nests on the sides of 
steep cliffs along the shore. Best of all are the 
eider ducks with their soft and beautiful feath- 
ers. Shirts of eider-duck skin with the feathers 
worn next to the body are the best and warmest 
of all, both for the babies of the household and 
their fathers. 

An Eskimo hunter will climb up the sides of 
the steepest cliff in his search for birds' eggs. 
If he lose his foothold, he may fall a great dis- 
tance and be dashed to pieces on the rocks be- 
low. But he does not seem to think of danger. 



Little Folks of Greenland 49 

His one idea is to get something good on which 
his family and himself may feast. 

The Skin-boat, or Kayak. 

The boats of the Eskimos are called kayaks 
and are like no others in the world. The boys 
take many lessons before they can be trusted to 
help in making a kayak. It is long and narrow 
and has room for only one person. Its frame 
is of bone or wood and it is pointed at both ends. 
When it is finished, the boatmaker stretches over 
it a seal skin which his wife has tanned. It is 
an excellent covering, for the water cannot pass 
through it. In the middle of the top the man 
leaves an opening as large as his body is round. 
He steps inside and sits down, stretching his legs 
in front of him. Yes, the opening is of the 
right size; the water of the wildest sea cannot 
enter and sink the boat when once the Eskimo 
has fitted the rim around the bottom of his coat 
over the rim he has made about the opening in 
the skin covering. With his stout paddle he 
will dare to travel for miles over the rough sea. 

The short summer-time is one long day, for 
the sun does not set. The children go to bed 
when they are tired and sleepy and get up when 



50 Little Folks of North America 

they please. They feast to their hearts' content 
during this time, for there are usually fish and 
birds and eggs in plenty. Then, too, these chil- 
dren of the north go berrying and bring home 
many a dish of delicious black crow-berries. 

The greatest dainty of all is the paunch of a 
reindeer's stomach. It consists of the moss and 
shrubs the animal has eaten, and is a little acid. 
It is no wonder then that the Eskimos are fond 
of it, as they have neither bread nor vegetables, 
and no fruit except the berries they are able to 
pick during a few weeks out of each year. 

The Reindeer. 

As soon as the spring opens the older boys look 
forward to the hunt. Perhaps a herd of rein- 
deer has been seen not far away, and the hunt- 
ers start out over the fields still well-covered 
with snow to look for traces of them. They 
carry bows and arrows, also knives. They must 
not forget to take fur soles for their feet, too. 
As soon as they are within range of their game 
they will bind these soles under their kamiks so 
that the reindeer cannot hear them as they draw 
near. 



Little Folks of Greenland 51 

Even now the herd may take fright while the 
hunters are still too far oflf to shoot. Then thud, 
thud, sound their feet as they scud away over 
the fields. But the hunters will not despair even 
then. They will give chase for hours together 
if it be necessary. 

Sometimes the keen eyes of the Eskimos will 
find only prints on the snow to show that a herd 
of reindeer has been lately feeding there. 

^^We will stay here and watch for them to 
return," they say to each other. Then they go 
to work to make a little fort of stones, behind 
which they sit down to watch and wait. 

They may have to stay there a long time be- 
fore the sound of reindeer hoofs is heard, but 
they are patient. They amuse each other with 
story-telling and the hours pass quickly. 

At last a herd draws near. The antlers of 
these Arctic reindeer are broad and branching. 
They plant their short legs firmly on the ground 
as, with heads bent down, they search for moss 
beneath the snow. They seem to know just 
where to paw away the snow to find the food 
they love. 

The right moment comes and the hunters send 



52 Little Folks of North America 

their arrows flying into the midst of the herd. 
One of the reindeer falls to the ground while the 
others dash wildly away. 

When a number of animals have been killed 
in a hunt and there is too much meat to carry 
at once, some of it is buried under a pile of 
stones, so that the wolves and foxes cannot get 
it. Then the hunters trudge home for the dog 
team to help them. 

New Settlers. 

You remember that Eric the Red went to live 
in Greenland before a white person had stepped 
on the mainland of North America. You also 
have learned that his followers lived in Green- 
land for a long time and then disappeared 
shortly after they met with the Eskimos. 

From that time no more white people went to 
Greenland till the year 1585, when an English- 
man named Davis sailed for many miles along 
its coast and visited among the Eskimos. Then 
he went away. 

After his visit, there were no settlers from 
other lands for nearly a hundred years. Then 
a good minister in Denmark left home with his 
wife and children and went to a place in south- 




From Copyrighted Stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

An Eskimo Village in Summer, 



Little Folks of Greenland 53 

western Greenland which he called God Havn 
or, Good Haven. Hans Egede, for this was 
was the minister's name, wished to teach the 
Eskimos the Christian religion. 

He had hard work before him. A long time 
passed before he could understand the strange 
words of the Eskimo language and the only way 
he could teach the people was by the pictures he 
brought with him. Yet he stayed in Greenland 
for many years and his own children grew up 
with the little Eskimos for playmates. 

Then Hans Egede's wife died and he went 
back to Denmark. By this time, however, he 
had a grown-up son who loved the work his 
father had begun. He said, ''I will remain 
here and keep on with your teaching." 

So he stayed. Other people from Denmark 
joined him, and now there are several settlements 
of Danes in Greenland. They have brought 
lumber with them with which to build their 
houses, as well as furniture and dishes from 
their old home across the sea. Even the sound 
of the piano may be heard now in this frozen 
land of the north. Tiny gardens have been dug 
where a few vegetables are raised each sum- 
mer. Best of all, churches have been built 



54 Little Folks of North America 

where Eskimo children sit side by side with their 
fair-haired brothers and sisters of Denmark. 

Once in a while a ship draws near bringing 
papers and letters, canned food and clothing 
from across the sea. It is a time of great excite- 
ment for the settlers. They have been getting 
ready for the coming of the ship for a long time, 
filling vessels with oil and fish, and packing the 
furs they have got in barter from the Eskimos. 
All these things are to be sold in other lands, 
besides many tons of cryolite which is very use- 
ful in making aluminum. The white settlers 
get it from a large mine and receive a good price 
for it, since Greenland and one other country 
are the only places in the world where it can be 
obtained. 

Although the Eskimo children of southern 
Greenland have white playmates among them, 
yet above them in the north there is many a 
little village where people from other lands have 
never been seen or even heard of. 



CHAPTER III 
Little Folks of Alaska 

The Coming of Behring 

CLOSE your hand together tightly, leaving 
the forefinger pointing straight out. 
You now have before you the general 
shape of the peninsula of Alaska, which lies in 
the northwestern part of North America. 

The children of Alaska have a much more 
comfortable home than the little Greenlanders. 
Their shores, except in the far north, are not 
bound in ice the year around; the winters are not 
so cold and the summers are warmer; trees grow 
in thick forests over a great part of the country, 
and many flowers bloom there. 

The reason for this is, that warm winds blow 
over the country from the west, and these winds 
are due to a broad stream of water flowing 
through the Pacific ocean, called the Japanese 
current. It makes its way from the south and 
keeps its warmth during its long journey through 

5S 



56 Little Folks of North America 

the colder waters of the main ocean. And so 
it is that the children of Alaska who feel the 
warm winds blowing eastward from the Japanese 
current, do not need the heavy furs worn by the 
Greenlanders, neither do they require as much 
fat meat to give heat to their bodies, nor as 
close and stufify homes to live in. 

The boys and girls of Alaska belong to several 
different races. There are the yellow-skinned 
Eskimos of the far north and west; there are the 
copper-colored Indians who are found in the 
south, and along the banks of the rivers of the 
inland country; there are the Aleuts, who live 
on a chain of islands stretching westward to- 
wards Asia, and who are like Indians in some 
ways and like the Japanese in others. No one 
really knows what these Aleuts are, nor where 
they came from. Perhaps in the long-ago they 
made their way to these islands from Asia, for 
the distance is not great, and small boats could 
have crossed over safely in good weather. 
Besides these Aleuts and the Indians and 
Japanese, there are white children from the 
United States whose fathers are busy trading 
for furs or digging gold in the mines. 

Early in the eighteenth century, a brave sea- 



Little Folks of Alaska 57 

man named Vitus Behring was sailing under 
the orders of Peter the Great of Russia. He 
crossed the Pacific ocean from Asia and traveled 
far into the north. He passed through a strait 
and entered a sea, both of which were named 
in his honor, Behring. Then he coasted along 
the shores of a land whose mountains often rose 
up out of the ocean. He was the first white 
man to look on the peninsula of Alaska. 

A dreadful storm arose during this voyage and 
Vitus Behring and his men were wrecked on a 
small island to which also the name of the com- 
mander was given. Here he died, and here his 
men built a vessel out of what they saved from 
the wreck, and sailed away for home to tell of 
what had been discovered. 

Time went by and other Russian ships visited 
Alaska and began to trade with the natives for 
the furs which they got from the wild animals 
roaming through the country. After a while 
they built small stations here and there on the 
coast, for the purpose of trading, and to these 
stations ships came regularly to receive loads of 
seal and fox, beaver and martin skins which the 
Indians and the Eskimos were glad to trap and 
kill, when they found they could get bright- 



58 Little Folks of North America 

colored blankets, tobacco, and many other things 
in exchange for them. 

In this way it came about that a few Russian 
children with blue eyes and yellow hair found 
their way to Alaska, and lived in rough log 
houses with wild-looking Indians and Eskimos 
for their neighbors. About fifty years ago the 
children of the United States began to hear many 
stories of Alaska. Their parents told them that 
Russian fur-traders had made fortunes there. 
Moreover, Russia was willing to sell the country 
for a few million dollars. 

Some people said, ''Why should not Ameri- 
cans buy it? Besides the valuable furs, there 
are rich forests in Alaska." 

At this time a statesman by the name of 
Seward was urging the United States to purchase 
that far-away peninsula, for he was quite sure 
this country would be well repaid for doing so. 
People listened to his reasons, and at last they 
decided to follow Mr. Seward's advice, and 
Russian America, as it had been called up to 
that time, received its new name of Alaska, and 
became a territory of the United States. There 
were many, however, who thought it a most fool- 
ish purchase and often spoke of it as "Seward's 



Little Folks of Alaska 59 

folly." To-day everyone looks upon it, instead, 
as ''Seward's wisdom," for it has made many an 
American child's father rich, not only through 
its furs, but also through the salmon caught in 
its waters and the gold found in its mines. 

The Little Eskimos. 

Along the northern and western shores of 
Alaska, in the coldest part of the country, are 
scattered villages of the Eskimos. They are 
much like their brothers and sisters of Green- 
land. They dress in furs, and live chiefly on the 
fat meat of the seal and walrus. They seldom 
go far from the shore, because most of their 
food is obtained from the sea. 

Their winter homes are small stone huts built 
partly underground, and with long tunnel-like 
entrances dug out of the earth and leading down 
into them. Turf and mud are plastered over 
the cone-shaped roofs, while in the middle, at 
the top of each, there is a small opening to let 
out the smoke. Directly under this opening is 
the family fireplace where wood is burnt ex- 
cept in the most northern homes. There the 
Eskimo children help their mothers tend just 
such lamps of seal-oil as the Greenlanders use. 



6o Little Folks of North America 

since it is too cold for trees to grow on the frozen 
marshes that stretch along the shores of the 
Arctic ocean. Oil is the one thing that they 
can obtain, and of this they must make use. In 
the short summer the little Eskimos of Alaska 
delight in the skin tents which their mothers 
stretch over light frames, while from time to 
time, during the spring and fall, they camp out 
in snow-houses. 

They have their teams of dogs, which they pet 
and train. They have their skin-covered kayaks 
made in much the same way as those of the 
Greenland Eskimos, although it is very probable 
that they have never heard of their relations in 
that distant island. Mother Nature has pro- 
vided certain things to maintain life in the frozen 
lands of the north, — not many to be sure; but 
the minds of those who dwell in places far distant 
from each other seem to have thought out much 
the same way of using them. 

In these far northern regions the little Eski- 
mos are often treated to a most beautiful sight. 
It is the northern lights, which flash over the 
heavens during the long cold winter nights, and 
are far brighter than are ever seen in Greenland 
or Iceland. Think of the most glorious rain- 






a O 

-t-a 



(6 "1 



0-5 



m 




Little Folks of Alaska 61 

bow you can imagine, — the brilliant green, yel- 
low, blue, and violet spreading out in great waves 
of light over the sky. For a few moments it is 
as light as day. Then the colors fade away and 
all is darkness once more. It is not strange that 
the little Eskimos who stand watching are filled 
anew with wonder and think of it as the work 
of great and powerful spirits. 

Among the Indians. 

Along the southern shores of Alaska and on 
the banks of the rivers of the inland country 
are many Indian villages. They belong to sev- 
eral different tribes, but their way of living is 
much the same. Their huts are generally built 
of logs and bark, and they like best to dress in 
the bright-colored blankets, with red and yellow 
handkerchiefs on their heads, which they get in 
barter from the white traders. The red chil- 
dren have broad faces, black eyes, and black hair. 
Long ago, before the white men lived among 
them, these little Indians believed that they 
could make themselves more beautiful by tat- 
tooing their bodies. As these poor children 
grew up, they suffered many an hour of pain 
while the red or blue lines were marked on their 



62 Little Folks of North America 

chins by threads drawn along under the skin. 
Now, however, as the red men learn more and 
more of the ways of the white people, this cruel 
fashion is passing away. Many of the little 
Indians of Alaska go to school, where they take 
delight in learning to read and write. They 
are rather slow, but they are very patient, and 
proud indeed are they when they have mastered 
a hard lesson. 

Most of them, however, are still in Mother 
Nature's school alone, but their bright eyes are 
continually learning new things about the trees 
and the flowers, and the wild animals that roam 
through the forests and over the snowfields. 
These children of the red men delight in the 
water. The rivers of Alaska are the roadways, 
and here as well as on the coast, the boys paddle 
in their canoes for many a mile, hunting, fishing, 
and racing. Many an Indian has a morning 
bath in the ice-cold river, or in the ocean. "It 
will make my child strong," his mother thinks, 
and so, whether it be a bright summer day, or 
a dark and freezing winter morning, in he goes 
for his daily plunge. 

In front of many homes of the red children 
are tall, straight posts. Horrible-looking faces 



Little Folks of Alaska 63 

are carved upon these posts, as well as the figures 
of birds, fishes and* wild animals. 

"It is the totem-pole," the Indian child will 
tell you with pride. The totem is the mark of 
his family. It is even more to him than is the 
coat-of-arms to many an Englishman. Suppose 
a wolf is the principal carving upon the pole. 
The child's parents tell him it is their guardian, 
and the child learns to look upon it with rever- 
ence. Perhaps his grandfather or his great- 
grandfather dreamed of the wolf while he was 
fasting alone in the forest. He thought it was 
a vision from heaven, and he chose it henceforth 
to be the totem of his tribe or of his family. 

Candle Fish. 

Since Alaska lies so far north, the winter must 
be long and dark. No lamps are needed to light 
the huts, however, if the children and their 
parents have provided themselves with enough 
candle-fish. These fish are about ten inches 
long, but quite thin. Strange to say, they are 
full of oil, and after being carefully dried, they 
will burn like torches. One of them will give 
as much light as two or three candles. At cer- 
tain times of the year, schools of candle-fish enter 



64 Little Folks of North America 

the mouths of the rivers which empty into the 
ocean. The Indian children watch for their 
coming, and as soon as they appear, they and 
their parents go down to the shore and rake 
them out of the water by the bushel. 

The Indian mothers not only dry the candle- 
fish for lighting their winter homes, but they 
also boil great numbers of them, for in this way 
they get a supply of hardened oil that takes the 
place of butter. The older and the more rancid 
this oil is, the better they like it. 

In the short Alaskan summer the fruits and 
flowers grow very fast. It seems as though they 
must make the best possible use of the sunshine. 
In the southern part of the country the children 
can pick the most beautiful bouquets of white 
clover, maiden-hair ferns, and bright-colored 
wild flowers. They go berrying to their hearts' 
content, too. There are fields and fields filled 
with tall blueberry bushes; there are the juicy 
yellow salmon berries; there are cranberries, 
blackberries, red and white currants, and bil- 
berries, but the best of all are the sweet, wild 
strawberries that almost melt in the mouth. 
Certainly the children of the greater part of 
Alaska can feast on good things in summer. 



Little Folks of Alaska 65 

Why, the berries are so plentiful that not only 
the boys and girls, but the birds of the country 
get fat with the rich living. Many of the wild 
geese, indeed, can hardly fly after the summer's 
feast, and are then easily caught by the boys and 
their fathers. 

Even in winter there are berries to add to the 
dinner of fish and oil, for during the summer 
the children gather many bushels for their moth- 
ers to dry and store away. Berries, fish and oil! 
Surely, think the people, a person should be con- 
tent if he has plenty of these three dainties. 
There are deer and bears, mountain goats, wild 
ducks and geese. All these are good for a 
change, but they cannot compare with fish, either 
fresh or dried, with an abundance of hardened 
oil spread over them. 

Along the coasts there are clams and oysters, 
mussels and crabs. The natives like these, too; 
they dry and string them on long blades of grass 
for the winter season. Thus they have more va- 
riety of food than the people of Greenland. 

Catching Salmon. 

The boys of southern Alaska spend much time 
along the shores of the waters which teem with 



66 Little Folks of North America 

cod and halibut, besides many smaller fish. But 
most plentiful of all are the salmon that leave 
the ocean as spring opens and enter the mouths 
of the rivers. How busy the people are then! 
The men and boys have nets all ready, and v^ith 
these they paddle out into the water in their 
canoes. After the season has well opened, they 
load their boats again and again in one day, and 
before the season is over there is many a time 
when they simply scoop the fish on to the shore 
with the blades of their paddles. Salmon are 
so sweet and fat, that the Indians are very fond 
of them. They can feast on fresh fish during 
the summer, while the women split up great 
numbers of them and hang them up on racks to 
dry for the coming winter. 

Many years ago the white people learned that 
salmon are plentiful in Alaska, so that now the 
Indians are busy, not only in getting the fish 
for themselves, but for the factories where tin 
boxes and casks are made by the hundreds and 
packed with the delicious fish which are sent 
to the people of the United States and elsewhere. 
Sometimes the children of the white men who 
are in the salmon business go to live in Alaska 
and there' they see many a strange sight. They 



Little Folks of Alaska 67 

look with wonder at the half-naked Indian boys 
and girls, with their wild bright eyes. They 
watch with envy as the red children glide over 
the water in their light bark canoes, and race 
with one another on the rivers. They shudder 
at the hideous faces carved on the totem poles. 
They look on with delight at the dances and 
the odd games of their red neighbors, and they 
laugh when they hear of Mr. Bruin and his 
way of catching fish. They would rather not 
be alone, however, when the bear is creeping 
down through the woods to get his dinner. They 
think he might possibly prefer a white child 
to the delicate pink salmon, but in this they are 
quite mistaken. 

Bears. 

The bears seem to know when the salmon ar- 
rive as well as the human beings do. They 
leave their homes in the woods and make their 
way down to the quiet little coves along the 
shore. When the fish come crowding in, out 
go the bears' paws into the water, scooping in 
the salmon of which they are so fond. Mr. 
Bruin swallows one after another until he has 
had his fill; then he creeps away as quietly as 



68 Little Folks of North America 

he came, to seek safety once more among the 
trees of the forest. Sometimes, alas, the white 
hunter discovers the trail and follows ne bear 
to the shore. Then bang! bang! sounds through 
the air and Bruin's salmon feasts are over. 

There are many bears in Alaska, — black, cin- 
namon, and in the far north the dangerous 
grizzly; but the red boy's father teaches him 
that it is best not to kill these animals. He has 
an idea that the bear's spirit will be angry and 
harm him if he does so. The white traders, 
however, want the skins and are willing to pay 
a good price for them, so the Indians sometimes 
go bear hunting, although after they meet with 
success, they go through strange rites, hoping 
thus to make peace with the bear's spirit. 

Whales and Sea Otters. 

As the children who live along the shores of 
Alaska look out to sea, they sometimes notice 
what appears to be a water spout, then another 
and another far away in the distance. It is the 
blowing of a school of whales, which have come 
up to the surface for fresh air. They run to 
tell the news to the older folks of the village, 
for nothing could be more delicious than a din- 



Little Folks of Alaska 69 

ner of whale. The men get their lances ready 
at once and hurry down to their canoes. Then 
away they paddle with all their might in the 
direction in which the monsters have been seen. 
If they succeed in coming upon the whales, 
there is busy and dangerous work for a while. 
The hunters must not think of fear as they draw 
near to the huge creatures to throw their spears 
in such a way as to inflict dangerous wounds. 
Then away they must paddle for dear life so 
as not to be swamped by the whales as they dive 
below. Before the men threw their lances they 
carefully fastened seal-skin buoys to them. As 
the whales plunge after being wounded, these 
buoys on the surface make it hard for them to 
stay below and they are soon worn out. When 
the hunters have wounded a whale as much as 
possible, they go home and wait for the tide to 
bring the dead animal ashore. Then there is 
a great feast in the village and all make merry. 
Many years ago white men fitted out big ships 
to sail into the northern waters after whales. 
In those days the oil was burnt in lamps; but 
now, since kerosene is plentiful, whale-oil with 
its unpleasant odor is little used. Whale-bone, 
however, is still valuable, and for this reason 



70 Little Folks of North America 

many ships are still engaged hunting these 
monsters of the sea. 

The Alaskan boys are ever on the watch for 
sea-otters. These shy creatures never leave the 
ocean, except when they have little ones to care 
for. Even then, it is said, the mother sea-otter 
sometimes chooses a bed of sea-weed out on the 
waves and there she floats, with her babes be- 
side her. It is a curious sight. More curious 
still is it to see one of these huge creatures asleep 
on her back, floating along on the surface of the 
water, with her little ones held in her close 
embrace. A party of Indians often go on a 
sea-otter hunt, for the animal is covered with 
fine black fur, through which are scattered long 
white hairs. It is very beautiful, and the white 
traders are always willing to pay a large sum 
for a sea-otter skin. 

The hunters must paddle quite a distance out 
to sea before they begin to look for an otter's nose 
to appear above the surface of the water as the 
creature comes up to breathe. The moment it 
IS seen, they swing their canoes around in a 
wide circle. Then, with spears in hand, they 
watch eagerly for the right moment to hurl 
them. Many days sometimes pass before the 



Little Folks of Alaska 71 

patient watchers are rewarded with even the 
sight of the longed-for prize, and even then 
the hunters may fail to secure it, yet it is worth 
all the time they spend, for the fur is among 
the richest and the rarest in the world. Indeed, 
the sea-otter is rarely found except in the waters 
which wash the shores of Alaska. 

More than once an Indian child has tried to 
raise a sea-otter, but he has never succeeded, for 
he cannot make the little creature eat, and it 
soon starves to death. 

Seal-Hunting. 

You remember that on the islands reaching 
out into the west from Alaska, many children 
are living who are neither Indians nor Eskimos. 
They are called Aleuts. Before the coming of 
the white people the Aleuts looked much like 
the Japanese, but afterwards the Russians mar- 
ried among them, so that many of their children 
to-day have lost much of the appearance of the 
yellow race. 

Few trees grow around the homes of the 
Aleuts but enough wood drifts over from the 
forests of the mainland to furnish fuel for their 
fires. They, live in. dark, damp huts built mostly 



72 Little Folks of North America 

underground, so it is no wonder that they love 
best to be out-of-doors when the hills and the 
fields are covered with pretty grasses, mosses, 
and bright flowers in the summer time. Many 
blue foxes run wild through the islands and 
these are hunted by the men, for the fur is very 
valuable and the white traders are always ready 
to buy the skins. 

The little Aleuts love the sea, where they pad- 
dle about in their light canoes, or fish in the 
clear waters. Northward from the Aleutian 
islands are two others called the Pribylov or 
Seal Islands. Thick fogs shut them in during 
the summer, while in the winter the shores are 
surrounded with drift ice. They are very im- 
portant, however, because they are the greatest 
hunting grounds for seals in the whole world. 
The Aleuts are the only people who live on 
these islands, except for a few white men who 
oversee the work of killing the seals. The vil- 
lages are scattered here and there, close to the 
sea, each with its church and its school-house, 
and during the winter the little Aleuts pass 
their time quietly in play and study. 

But when the spring comes, they are full of 



Little Folks of Alaska 73 

excitement, as they watch the seals, big and little, 
old and young, gather on their shores. No one 
knows how far these creatures have traveled, 
nor in what distant waters they have passed the 
winter. Come they do, however, by hundreds 
and thousands, and on the shores of these islands 
the baby seals are born. They are graceful little 
creatures, and play and frolic together like kit- 
tens. When they are born they are quite blind, 
but they begin to see after a few days. When 
they are about six weeks old their mother leads 
them down to the water for their first swim. 
At first they are afraid, but their mother coaxes 
and urges them on, so that in a short time they 
are able to swim about with ease. Before long 
they enjoy this new water-life as much as their 
fathers and mothers do, and are soon able to 
hunt for the small fishes and kelp which are the 
seals' principal food. The hunting season lasts 
about six weeks, and begins early in June, soon 
after the arrival of the seals. The men arm 
themselves with clubs, and then drive the seals 
up into a cleared space away from the shore, 
where the animals are helpless, because they are 
clumsy and move slowly when out of the water. 



74 Little Folks of North America 

A single blow on the seal's head is enough to 
end his life, and to give the hunter the beautiful 
soft skin he wishes. 

Year after year goes around and each summer 
brings herds of seals to these islands, with no 
understanding! that thousands of their number 
are coming only to die at the hands of the 
hunters. Sometimes the Indian boys catch baby 
seals and keep themifor pets. They are gentle 
little creatures, and soon learn to love their 
young masters, and to follow them about. They 
bark much like» puppies and are often taught 
to do tricks. 

Hunting in Alaska. 

The Indian boys of Alaska could tell you 
many stories about the wild animals they hunt 
with their fathers. There are martens, with 
their soft brown fur, black and silver foxes, 
beavers, musk-rats, mountain-goats, moose, deer, 
otter and many others which roam in great num- 
bers over the hills and through the valleys. The 
Yukon River, one of the largest in the world, is 
the most important one in Alaska, and through 
the country on either side of it the wild animals 
are found in great numbers. The hunters get 




From Copyrighted Stereograph 

by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



An Alaskan Village Showing Indian Totem Poles. 



Little Folks of Alaska 75 

many of them in traps. There, on the banks 
of that great river, hundreds of canvas-back 
ducks lay their eggs on the platforms of grass 
and twigs which they build on the low marshes, 
and the Indian children go in parties to hunt 
for their eggs and the baby ducklings. 

The older boys trap many a fox and musk-rat, 
whose skins they proudly give to their fathers 
who will sell them to the white traders, and get 
sugar, tea, and blankets in exchange. They 
spend hours in hunting along the banks of the 
stream for beaver villages, and taking these little 
creatures unawares. 

The Gold Mines. 

Not many years ago it was found that not 
only furs and salmon could be obtained in 
Alaska, but in some places the rocks were rich 
with precious gold. The Treadmill gold-mine 
is one of the most valuable in the world. The 
men who work there do not have to leave the 
sunlight and dig far down under the earth, for 
the mine, or rather quarry, is above ground, 
and there the workers are kept busy, breaking 
away the masses of rock which are afterwards 
crushed in heavy stamps, to separate the gold 



76 Little Folks of North America 

from the quartz. When darkness falls, electric 
lights make everything as bright as day. There 
are more than two hundred of these stamps at 
the Treadmill mine, so you can imagine that 
when all are at work crushing the great masses 
of rock, the noise is enough to deafen one's ears. 
As the gold is separated, it is made up into 
bricks, each one of which is worth between fif- 
teen and eighteen thousand dollars! These 
bricks are afterwards sent in ship loads to the 
mint at San Francisco. 

Sitka. 

On an island off the southern shore of Alaska, 
lies Sitka, the capital of the territory. It was 
built long ago when the Russians owned the 
country, and even now you may visit the moss- 
grown Castle, where the governors always lived. 
There they held many a feast and dance, to 
which the savage Indian chiefs from the country 
around were sometimes invited. Fine glass and 
silver, which had come all the way from Russia, 
sparkled at these feasts. Grand ladies in silks 
and satins laughed and chatted beneath the soft 
light of hundreds of candles, trying perhaps to 
forget their longing for home. 



Little Folks of Alaska 77 

Now that Alaska belongs to the United States, 
many things have been done to make Sitka 
healthful and comfortable. The new governors 
chose Indians for policemen. Very grand they 
must have thought themselves when they first 
put on their blue uniforms, with gilt letters on 
their caps and silver stars on their breasts.. 

Among other wise things, the governor made 
the law, that the children must go to school. 
Now, there were many Indians in Sitka, and 
they did not understand what a fine thing it is 
to have learning. But the governor directed 
that all the houses must be numbered. Not only 
this, but each child of the house was given a 
number, and this was stamped on a tiny, round 
plate which he was obliged to wear on a string 
tied around his neck. He had to show this num- 
ber to the school-teacher and in this way one 
could keep track of him. 

Whenever an excursion steamer enters the 
harbor, the people of Sitka make ready for a 
holiday, while the Indians hasten to get out 
their blankets to sell to the visitors. Many peo- 
ple travel in Alaska in the summer time, on 
purpose to see the wonderful sights there, — the 
high mountains covered with snow, the valleys 



78 Little Folks of North America 

filled with flowers, the wild Indians, the strange 
huts before which the totem poles rise high in 
the air; but most interesting of all are the gla- 
ciers, whose beginning is far up in the snow- 
covered mountains. Slowly but surely, they 
make their way down to the sea, growing larger 
as other and smaller glaciers join themselves 
to them. There is a certain bay in Alaska 
which the summer visitors are sure to visit if 
they can possibly do so. It is called Glacier 
Bay, because of an immense glacier which enters 
it. Imagine yourself on a steamer entering this 
bay on a bright sunshiny day of mid-summer. 
Yet you shiver, for the air begins to grow colder 
and colder. It is no wonder, for ice-bergs meet 
your eyes on every side. They are clear as crys- 
tal and are lighted with the most beautiful colors, 
— delicate pinks and blues. As you look, you 
fancy that they have the shapes of different ani- 
mals or of grand castles. Some of them, indeed, 
seem like great lonely beings. From time to 
time flocks of birds pass overhead and light on 
the bergs for a short rest. 

Whence did these bergs come, and whither are 
they drifting so slowly? You look ahead and 
there before you is the Muir glacier entering 



Little Folks of Alaska 79 

the sea. As you draw nearer it seems like a 
mighty fortress. The captain of the steamer 
tells you that its face is three miles wide, and 
that all these icebergs, among which the ship has 
to be steered so carefully, have broken away from 
this one glacier. He does not dare to carry his 
passengers too near, for some time, without any 
warning, a fresh berg may break away. As it 
plunges into the bay, with a noise like thunder, 
it will stir the waters into an angry whirlpool. 

There are many other glaciers in Alaska, but 
this one is the largest and the most wonderful 
of them all. Geysers and volcanos are also to 
be found in the country. One of the mountains, 
named Mt. McKinley, is the highest peak in 
North America. Another, Mt. Elias, rises al- 
most out of the ocean, and its cloak of snow and 
ice reaches nearly to its base. When boys and 
girls wish to travel where they can see many 
strange and wonderful sights, they would do 
well to take a summer's trip to Alaska, — the 
land of gold and fur, of waterfalls, geysers and 
glaciers. 



CHAPTER IV 
Little Folks of Canada 

The First White Settlers 

IF you look at the map of North America, 
you will find that nearly the whole upper 
half, with the exception of Alaska, bears 
the name of the Dominion of Canada. Its 
northern shores are bathed by the cold waters 
of the Arctic Ocean. On the east is the great 
Atlantic, and on the west is the stormy Pacific. 
The boys and girls who live in this vast country 
can travel for hundreds of miles along mighty 
rivers; they can sail on lakes so great that they 
may lose sight of land and grow sea-sick from 
the motion of the boat as it moves through the 
waves ; they can climb high mountains capped 
with snow in the hottest summer weather; they 
can wander over vast prairies for days and even 
wxeks at a time with no view of anything as 
far as the eye can see, save miles and miles of 
grass; they can lose themselves in thick forests 

80 



Little Folks of Canada 81 

where only wild animals and Indian hunters 
have ever ventured before. All these things are 
possible for the Canadian child without moving 
out of the land which he calls home. 

Once upon a time, less than fifty years after 
Columbus discovered the New World, a brave 
Frenchman named Jacques Cartier left his 
sunny home in France, and sailed into the west. 
The king of France had heard of the wonderful 
land which Columbus had discovered, and 
which the Spaniards had begun to settle. He 
wished to have some part of it for himself, so 
he directed Cartier to go farther north than the 
Spaniards had done. When he reached a good 
place for a home, he was to land and set up 
the flag of France. 

Cartier, with two ships, each of which bore 
sixty-one men, set out. They crossed the ocean 
and arrived on the coast of a large island. Its 
shores were still blocked with ice, although it 
was the month of April. To-day we know this 
island as Newfoundland or New-found-land. 
The Frenchmen were not pleased with the coun- 
try, for it looked bare and rocky. When they 
landed, they were met by savages with red skins 
and black hair tied on the top of their heads, 



82 Little Folks of North America 

''Like a wreath of hay," as Carter said. He 
was quite sure that this was not a fit place for 
a home; so the ships were turned northward. 
They soon entered a large gulf which received 
the name of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

On the shores of this gulf the white men were 
also met by Indians, whose homes were their 
upturned canoes. The savages wore little or no 
clothing; they lived on fish and flesh that was 
scarcely cooked; they seemed poor and very 
savage. The country, which was the mainland 
of Canada, looked pleasant, and Carter set up 
a tall cross and took possession of it in the name 
of France. He induced the Indian chief to al- 
low his two sons to go back to France with him. 
Then he set sail for home, eager to tell his friends 
of the land he had visited. 

The next year Cartier returned to Canada 
with a goodly company. They entered the gulf 
of St. Lawrence, as they had done before, but 
they sailed on until they came to the mouth of 
a wide river. 

"It flows from afar off," said the two Indians 
who had gone to France with Cartier, and who 
had returned with him. ''No man has ever seen 
its beginning," they continued. 



Little Folks of Canada 83 

"Perhaps," thought Cartier, who had no idea 
how vast was the new land that he had dis- 
covered, "it is not a river. It is so broad and 
so deep, it may be an arm of the ocean, and if 
I follow it, I may find the short way to India, 
about which so many have dreamed." 

So he and his men kept on their way up the 
St. Lawrence River, stopping from time to time 
to admire the beautiful country and the wonder- 
ful sights that met them on every hand. Wild 
grape vines hung from the trees along the banks, 
and the delicious fruit was even now ripening. 
Water-fowls flew over their heads, and they got 
glimpses of wild animals such as they had never 
seen before. Most interesting of all were the 
little Indian villages scattered here and there 
along the shore. 

From one of the settlements Cartier was pass- 
ing, the people came out in their canoes to get a 
better sight of the white men, but they were 
afraid to come close to the ships, till Cartier's 
two young Indian friends spoke to them and 
told them not to fear. Then they came on board 
and listened to the story of the visit the two 
Indian youths had made in France, and of the 
wonderful things that had happened to them. 



84 Little Folks of North America 

The Indians were now quite sure that the 
strangers meant only good to them, and that 
there was nothing to fear. 

They hastened to bring presents to the visitors 
and show friendship in every way that they 
knew. Cartier did not stay long in the place, 
however. He sailed on till he came to a fine 
harbor beneath steep, high cliffs. An Indian 
village stood here. To-day it is the site of the 
city of Quebec. 

^'Farther on, up the river, is a still larger 
town of our people, and it is ruled over by a 
very powerful chief," the Indians there told 
him. 

''But the way is long and dangerous," added 
their own chief. "You had better not go there." 

When he said this, he was thinking of the 
store of knives, bright-colored beads, and tiny 
looking-glasses the white men had shown him. 
A few of these strange and beautiful things had 
been given to him. He could not bear to think 
of that other chief also receiving some. 

But Cartier was not to be frightened. He 
set sail once more and for thirteen days the ships 
kept on their way up the river. From time to 
time they stopped at Indian villages where the 



Little Folks of Canada 85 

red children and their parents came dancing 
about them, bringing presents of fruit and fish. 
The savages told many stories about the country 
beyond; gold and precious stones were to be 
found there, and there were strange beings who 
lived without food. Still Cartier traveled on 
until he reached a village of at least fifty huts. 

There was a three-fold wall of stakes around 
it, and fields where leaves of corn were waving 
in the autumn wind. Behind this village was a 
hill which Cartier called Mount Royal. To- 
day, in the very spot where the Indian village 
once stood, is the large city of Montreal, the 
most important one in the country. Cartier and 
his men stayed in Canada for several months. 
They built two forts on the banks of the St. 
Lawrence ; they made gardens, and marked out 
a road. They were of good heart until the long, 
cold winter was upon them, longer and colder 
than they had ever known. Many grew home- 
sick with longirLg for sunny France; others fell 
ill. At last they decided to give up the settle- 
ment and to return home. 

After that French ships visited Canada from 
time to time. They stopped to get loads of furs 
which the Indians were glad to sell, but no one 



86 Little Folks of North America 

came to settle in the country for many years. 

At last the king of France said to himself, ^'I 
cannot hold the land on the other side of the 
ocean, unless I send people there to settle, and 
it is worth while to keep it because of the furs 
we can get in trade from the Indian hunters." 

He sent over a colony of settlers who came 
sailing one bright day into the harbor of Port 
Royal. They landed on the beautiful shore and 
were soon busy building a chapel and a fort, as 
well as homes for themselves. A good priest 
came with them. He was so kind and gentle 
that even the savages loved him, and were quite 
willing to listen to the stories that he told them 
of a heavenly Father, and Jesus, the Savior of 
men. 

The Explorer Champlain. 

Among the settlers was the brave Champlain, 
who advised building a fort above the steep 
cliffs under which Cartier had anchored his 
ships years before. Workmen were soon at 
work on a fort, a chapel, and homes for the set- 
tlers. It was the beginning of the strong fortress 
and city of Quebec. 

After these first settlers, came other French- 



Little Folks of Canada 87 

men and their families, and before many years, 
the red children and the white were playing 
merrily together. 

"You must love each other," the gentle French 
priest had told them. "Though you are of dif- 
ferent races, yet you are the children of the one 
Father." 

So it was that the sons and daughters of the 
Frenchmen grew up with no fear of the little 
savages. Why, their priests often went to live 
in the Indian villages, that they might better 
show their friendship. Indians were often in- 
vited to feasts held in the white men's homes 
and joined in their sports. Moreover, the chil- 
dren's own relatives often chose Indian maidens 
for their wives, and were very happy with them. 
And because of this last, there came in time to 
be many people in Canada who were called half- 
breeds, as they were partly French and partly 
Indian. 

The Coming of the English. 

Many years passed quietly by. The French 
people in Canada lived peacefully with their red 
neighbors. They built trading stations out in 
the country, and here furs were brought in great 



88 Little Folks of North America 

numbers by the Indian hunters. Forts were 
also built along the banks of the St. Lawrence, 
and still farther into the wilderness, on the 
shores of the Five Great Lakes, which separate 
Canada from the United States. 

The French explorers and priests went even 
farther, for they made their way from these 
lakes down into the United States, never stop- 
ping till they had sailed the whole length of the 
Mississippi River. Everywhere they went they 
planted the French flag and claimed the country 
in the name of the king across the ocean. Now, 
the English, who had settled on the southern side 
of the Great Lakes, did not like the idea of the 
French becoming so powerful in North Amer- 
ica; thus it came about after a while that there 
were wars between the two peoples. 

The Lidians of Canada took the part of their 
French friends. Terrible battles were fought; 
brave soldiers were killed; cruel deeds were 
done to women and little children by the savage 
Indians. Years passed by and the troubles did 
not come to an end. It seemed as though there 
was no way of settling matters and making 
peace. 

All this time a little boy was growing up in 



Little Folks of Canada 89 

England. His name was James Wolfe. He 
was delicate and sickly, yet his bright, clear eyes 
showed that he had a strong will. He longed 
with all his heart to be a soldier. And soldier 
he became, though it seemed as if he would 
never be able to bear such a hard life. 

When he was only sixteen he fought for his 
country in Flanders. He soon showed how 
brave he was, and became a high officer in the 
army. He was sent to America to fight against 
the French and Indians. If he could only ge 
Quebec, he thought. It was the strongest for 
tress of all the enemy held. But that seemed 
impossible, for no one dreamed that an army 
could scale the steep crags above which the for- 
tress was built. 

Yet Wolfe kept thinking, thinking. By this 
time he was the commander of a whole fleet of 
English ships. At last there came a day when 
he sailed boldly up the St. Lawrence, and 
landed his men on the shore opposite to Quebec. 
He set up great cannons which should fire upon 
the fortress across the river. The siege began. 
In the midst of it heavy rain fell; Wolfe and 
many of his men became ill. Though he was 
burning with fever he still kept planning. One 



90 Little Folks of North America 

day, as he looked through his telescope, he saw 
something that he had never noticed before. It 
was a narrow path, — O, so very narrow — that 
wound in and out, yet ever upward, to the top 
of the crags that guarded Quebec. 

He said to himself, ^'My men and I shall 
climb that path and take the fortress by sur- 
prise." 

Soon afterwards, on a dark night, they did 
climb it. Wolfe himself rose from his sick bed 
and led them. As the sun rose the next morn- 
ing the English army appeared on the Plains of 
Abraham, behind the fort, and one of the great 
battles of the world was fought. Before night 
fell, Quebec was in the hands of the English. 
Both Wolfe, and Montcalm, the French com- 
mander were killed. Henceforth, not only 
Quebec, but all Canada would be ruled over 
by the English. 

Henry Hudson and the Great Lone Land. 

It was in the year 1610, that a brave seaman 
named Henry Hudson, sailed northward along 
the shores of North America. He had already 
discovered the Hudson River in the United 
States, and traded with the Indians there for 



Little Folks of Canada 91 

furs. He had tried to find a short way to India 
but had failed. Now he hoped by going still 
farther he might yet discover it. On and still 
on he sailed till he entered a large bay on the 
northern shore of Canada, which ever since has 
been called Hudson Bay. Here, in the midst 
of ice and snow, he and his men were obliged 
to pass the winter. There was little to eat, and 
it was bitter cold. 

His men blamed him for bringing them to 
such suffering, and at last rose against him. 
They set him adrift in a small boat, with his 
young son and a few faithful followers. Then, 
leaving him to die of cold and hunger, they 
sailed for home, to tell of the large bay that had 
been discovered, and of the wild country around 
it. As time went by other Englishmen visited 
Hudson Bay, but they had no wish to stay long 
in its icy waters or on its lonely shores. 

At last, however, a number of English mer- 
chants formed themselves into the Hudson Bay 
company. 

They said, ''We will send men to North Amer- 
ica who shall build forts along the shore of Hud- 
son Bay. They shall buy furs of the Indians, 
and send them to us here in England. The furs 



92 Little Folks of North America 

of the wild animals there are rich and beautiful, 
and will bring us riches." 

In this way it came about that English ships 
brought to Canada men who at once set to work 
building forts and trading stations in the neigh- 
borhood of the bay discovered by Henry Hud- 
son. They had with them knives and hatchets, 
beads and bright colored blankets, — everything 
that an Indian might wish in exchange for his 
furs. They treated the red men kindly, for they 
wanted to trade peaceably with them, but at the 
same time they kept their guns ready in case of 
an attack by the savages. 

Alexander Mackenzie and his long Journey. 

Even after the English had won the country 
for themselves, they did not know how large it 
was, for no one had explored the country from 
north to south or from east to west. At last a 
brave Scotchman named Alexander Mackenzie 
came to settle in Canada. He was fond of ad- 
venture and liked nothing better than roaming 
for miles through the wilderness, hunting the 
wild animals in the forest, and skimming over 
the lakes and* down the streams in an Indian 
canoe. He visited many a settlement where the 



Little Folks of Canada 93 

red children had never before looked upon a 
white man; he discovered rivers and lakes of 
which the French and English knew nothing 
before. He arrived in his wanderings on the 
shore of the Great Slave Lake in the very heart 
of the country. A large river flowed out of it. 
Where did it go, and how far? The Indians 
could not tell him. 

At the beginning of the summer, he set out 
with a small party of white men and an Indian 
guide. At first it was very pleasant paddling 
down the river in their canoes, but after a few 
days they came to rapids. Then they had to take 
to the land and carry their canoes and their sup- 
plies on their shoulders. As they traveled on- 
ward they came to still other rapids which 
stopped their course again and again. 

The farther north they traveled, the colder it 
became. The days were much longer, too, for 
it was nearing mid-summer. It seemed very 
strange to them to have the midnight as bright 
as day-light. The wild animals were scarce 
now. 

"Suppose," thought Mackenzie, 'Ve are un- 
able to shoot enough for our food," but still he 
kept on. He passed Indian villages on his way, 



94 Little Folks of North America 

and at last met with Eskimos who were wander- 
ing about on their summer hunt. 

The wild animals were different now from 
what the explorers had met before; they had 
reached the home of the polar bear and the arctic 
fox. The river was full of broken ice and there 
were whales in the water. They were close to 
the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and had traveled 
a thousand miles down the great river, which 
they named Mackenzie in honor of their brave 
leader. The party did not remain long in the 
bleak, northern country, but turned about and 
journeyed homeward as quickly as possible. 

Three years afterwards Mackenzie made up 
his mind to cross Canada to the westward. 
Slowly but surely he made his way, now gliding 
along a stream or over a lake in his canoe ; now 
cutting a path through a thick forest; again find- 
ing himself stopped by high cliffs or by a rush- 
ing torrent. But he kept on until he came to 
the Rocky Mountains, whose snowy tops 
reached far up towards the heavens. 

" Not far beyond those mountains is the sea," 
Mackenzie's Indian guide told him. 

He still pushed on, through narrow passes, 
between walls of rock, up steep slopes and down 



Little Folks of Canada 95 

through deep valleys. At last he reached the 
other side, launching his boats in a stream flow- 
ing to the west. In a short time the Pacific 
Ocean lay stretched before his eyes. 

Among the Eskimos and Indians. 

The middle of Canada is a great plain, which 
ends in the north in frozen marshes, where the 
homes of the little Eskimos are to be found. 
There, in the midst of the ice and snow they work 
and play, in much the same way as their brothers 
and sisters in Greenland and Alaska. 

Farther south, yet still where the summer is 
short, and the winter is long and cold, Indian 
children camp out on the prairies and on the 
borders of the forests. Most of these red chil- 
dren live in tents, or tepees, as they call them. 
The winter tents are lined with heavy skins, and 
a large fire burns in the middle, around which 
they sleep during the cold winter nights. They 
dress in the skins of the wild animals their fathers 
have killed, and they wear soft moccasins on their 
feet. They run many a mile in these moccasins 
without getting tired or losing their breath. 

Sometimes the little Indians have great feasts 
when ducks and geese, deer and hares are to be 



96 Little Folks of North America 

found, or when the berries and birds' ^ggs are 
plentiful. But many a time during the long 
winter game is scarce, and there is no food to 
be had. Then the children must not complain, 
though they are faint with hunger. If an In- 
dian child hopes to grow up and be a brave man, 
he must learn to bear many things and show no 
one how much he is suffering. 

Fearful storms rage about his home in the 
winter. The snow falls hour after hour and the 
fierce winds drive it in great gusts. Sometimes 
in summer the winds blow hard too, but then 
they are hot and dry and they scorch the faces 
of those who are exposed to them. 

The red children learn many things not to be 
found in books. They look at the grass, — the 
way the blades turn shows them where to look 
for the east and west. The flight of birds warns 
them of a coming storm and in what direction 
to look for it. A broken twig tells them that a 
wild animal has passed by. 

They have many sports. In winter they bind 
snow-shoes on their feet and skim over the snow- 
fields. In summer they ride over the prairies on 
their ponies with pads of deer skin beneath them. 

Sometimes they let their ponies move along at 



^ifii.. 









^^^)f 



From Copyrighted Stereograph 
bv Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



Little Canadian Indian Children. 



Little Folks of Canada 97 

a slow walk; but more often they gallop wildly 
along, with black hair waving in the air, and 
with bright and eager eyes. Then, too, the red 
children have canoes, in which they paddle on 
the lakes or streams near home. 

The canoe of the Canadian Indian is the best 
possible boat for the kind of life he follows, just 
as the Eskimo's kayak suits the icy waters of 
the north. Everything he needs for it can be 
found in the forest. He cuts down the cedar 
for its ribs, he gathers birch-bark with which 
to cover it, he gets resin from the pine to make 
it water-tight. When the ice begins to break up 
in the springtime and the wild swans and geese 
fly overhead, then he takes it from its winter 
resting place beneath the snow and launches it 
on the lake or stream near his home. With his 
birch canoe he can travel a long way throug the 
wilderness, for when he has hunted or fished 
all day long, he can bring his canoe up on the 
shore and turn it bottom upwards. In an in- 
stant he has a roof to shelter him while he takes 
his night's sleep. 

The Indian children are sure to have dogs 
about their home. These are long-legged, 
sharp-nosed creatures, and they always look lean 



98 Little Folks of North America 

and hungry. Sometimes a puppy is cared for 
tenderly. Then, perhaps, it grows up full of 
love for its young master. But generally the 
dogs are only half-fed, and they are ever ready 
to fight with each other, and rob the stores of 
their masters. Yet they are very helpful to the 
Indian, as well as to many a white traveler in 
Canada. They drag the sledges over the snow 
in the winter and the little carts in the summer. 

Many a time they stop to quarrel among them- 
selves ; many a time the sledge is over-turned and 
the rider is landed in a bank of snow. Many a 
time the dogs refuse to obey the word of the 
driver. Then the long whip flies right and left 
among them, and with angry howls they get back 
into order. 

Wild Animals of the Forest and Prairie. 

Out on the prairies and among the forests are 
many wild animals which the Indian boy de- 
lights to hunt. He has a bow and arrows of his 
own, and when he his older, his father promises 
him that he will buy him a gun from the white 
traders. Perhaps the most clever of all the ani- 
mals hunted in Canada is the beaver. It might 
well be called the animal-carpenter. Its favor- 



Little Folks of Canada 99 

ite home is a shallow lake or stream. The chil- 
dren of the wilderness are ever on the lookout 
for small earth mounds along the banks. When- 
ever they find these, they also notice that trees 
have been cut down nearby. It was certainly 
the work of beavers. These little mounds, then, 
are the roofs of store houses where the wise little 
creatures have placed piles of tender wood and 
roots, for their winter's supply. 

From these store-houses, tunnels have been 
dug out for some distance under the shallow 
water of the pond or stream, to the very doors 
of the beavers' homes, which have been made 
very carefully out of twigs and brush, and plast- 
ered with mud. The tops can generally be seen 
above the surface of the water. Inside there 
are beds of boughs covered with soft grass and 
bark, and here the beavers sleep most of the hours 
during the winter. If the hunters come upon 
a beaver village in cold weather, there is no 
sign that the animals are near, for the beavers 
are all inside their homes. This is the time to 
get them, however, for then the soft thick fur 
is at its best. 

In the autumn the men and boys generally 
catch the animals in traps, but in the winter, 



100 Little Folks of North America 

when the ice is frozen quite solid, the hunters 
stop up the passage from the beaver's home to 
his store-house on the bank. Then with their 
axes, they break into the lodges, and dragging 
out the fat sleepy animals, they kill them, one 
by one. The sledges are soon packed and the 
hunters start for home, thinking as they go, of the 
feast of fat meat they will soon have. The beau- 
tiful furs must be tanned and put away for the 
traders, but the flesh of the animals they will 
enjoy themselves. 

Besides beavers, there are martens, minks and 
fishers to be hunted and trapped, as well as musk- 
rats and skunks. As soon as autumn comes 
the men and boys begin to put their traps in 
order, for with the first cold of November, they 
will carry them out to the pine forests. The 
Indian children would tell you that they cannot 
imagine why the fisher is so called. They know 
its ways and that it never goes near to the water 
except when it has to cross over to the other side. 
It has a long bushy tail and its fur is even richer 
than the costly sable. 

As for the mink, they have discovered it is 
quite different from either the marten or the 
fisher, and its fur is not as beautiful. It lives 



Little Folks of Canada 10 1 

near the streams and feeds upon crabs and fish. 
Many a time the young Indian has caught a mink 
by baiting his trap with fish. 

Sometimes, as the children are playing around 
the camp in the evening, they hear a sudden 
screech in the distance. It is the cry of a wild- 
cat, or lynx. They would not care to have it 
take them by surprise, for it is a fierce creature, 
and its teeth and claws are very sharp. The 
men, however, hunt wild-cats and get many of 
them every year, because they are well paid for 
the skins. 

Then there are foxes, silver and black and red. 
Many thousands of these sly creatures are shot 
or trapped every year in Canada. Sometimes a 
fox-cub is brought into the camp to amuse the 
children. It is a gentle, pretty creature at first, 
but before long it will show the ugly cunning of 
its parents. 

The boys sometimes search for musk-rats, 
whose homes are much like those of the beavers, 
a number of them always found together. 

Off for the Hunt. 

There are many half-breed children in Canada, 
as you already know. They grow up with a love 



102 Little Folks of North America 

of hunting like their Indian brothers. They 
dress in Indian fashion, wearing moccasins and 
leggings. Many of them live in rough log huts 
and sleep on piles of brush covered w^ith fur 
robes. When the cold weather sets in, the In- 
dian, and the half-breed boy as well, does what 
he can to help the men of the household get 
ready for the busiest work of the year, as the 
trapping and hunting season is at hand. 

By the first of November the lakes and streams 
are frozen, and the winter coats of the wild ani- 
mals are at their best. On a bright, frosty morn- 
ing, often with the thermometer below zero, the 
trapper dresses himself in his thickest socks and 
moccasins, warm leggings and cloak. He fas- 
tens a fur cap down over his head and draws on 
his long fur mittens which reach up to his elbows. 
A hatchet, hunting knife, and fire-bag hang 
from his belt. 

While he is dressing, his wife is busy prepar- 
ing his pack, for he may be gone several days. 
The pack consists of a blanket, a kettle and cup, 
sugar and salt, tea, of which the Indians are 
very fond, and enough pemmican to last several 
days. Pemmican is dried meat ground fine and 
mixed with fat. If the trapper is not very poor 



Little Folks of Canada 103 

he has steel traps and a gun to add to his pack. 
When it is ready, it is bound to a hand sledge 
which is simply a thin board curled up at one 
end. It is easily drawn over the snow, and at 
the end of the hunt is loaded with furs and game 
to carry home. 

Now for the snow shoes! When these have 
been bound on his feet, the trapper can skim 
over the snow fields with the greatest ease, draw- 
ing his sledge behind him. He must not sing 
nor make any noise as he moves along; nor if 
he has any company can there be any loud talk- 
ing. Otherwise the animals whom he seeks, 
might take fright and flee from danger, and this 
must not happen on any account. 

Ah, how cold it is! the breath freezes as it 
leaves the mouth and nostrils, the eye-lashes be- 
come stiff with frost, but the hunter is too busy 
watching for signs of the prey he seeks, to think 
of these things. His hands and feet become 
numb with the biting cold, but this is only 
what he expected, and he trusts to his quick 
movements to keep them from freezing. At 
last the forest is reached and he turns his eyes in 
every direction for signs that animals have been 
near.: A white man would see nothing, where 



104 Little Folks of North America 

an Indian or a half-breed reads whole pages in 
Mother Nature's wonderful book. 

Yes, a marten was here^only an hour or two 
since and is still not very far away. A trap must 
be set up in this very spot and baited with dried 
meat, or with a tender piece of squirrel. Then 
the hunter creeps away, to seek places where 
there are other signs of life and to set up new 
traps while he waits. If he is after foxes or 
minks, he visits the' shores of the lakes and 
swamps. He looks carefully about him now for 
the foot-marks of the fox, or the sharp, clear 
track of the mink. 

When the evening comes the trapper looks 
about him for some place that is sheltered from 
the wind. There he makes a roaring fire, over 
which he brews a pot of tea. When this is ready, 
he enjoys his hot drink, together with a share of 
the pemmican brought from home. Next he 
gathers soft pine boughs for a bed, covers them 
with a banket, and with his feet towards the fire, 
lies down for his night's rest. Toward morn- 
ing the fire burns low, and the cold grows so 
bitter that the man cannot sleep. He gets up, 
piles on more wood, and warms himself by the 
bright flames. Once more he stretches himself 



Little Folks of Canada 105 

on his bed of boughs, hoping to sleep until the 
morning sunshine shall awaken him. 

Winter Sports. 

A great many of the white children of Canada 
live in Quebec and Ontario. Although these 
provinces lie in the southern part, yet the winter 
is very cold even there. The children enjoy it, 
however, because the air is clear and dry, and 
there is plenty of snow on the ground. Even 
the little folks learn how to use snow-shoes, and 
with these on their feet, they skim over the 
crusted snow-fields like the wind. 

They have many toboggan rides, too. Noth- 
ing could be pleasanter for a party of merry 
children, than to spend the morning coasting 
down the steep hillside on wooden sleds called 
toboggans, which are shaped much like the In- 
dian hand-sledges. They move so fast over the 
snow, that the riders must hold on tightly lest 
they tumble out. Sometimes there is a sudden 
upset as the toboggan strikes a rough spot on the 
hillside. Then there is much laughing and 
shouting as the children pick themselves up, and 
make ready for a fresh start. 

Perhaps the greatest sport of all is a ride on 



lo6 Little Folks of North America 

an ice-boat which is raised on large iron skates, 
and in a good wind will sail very swiftly. When 
the St. Lawrence River is frozen over, one can 
see numbers of ice-boats skimming along with 
their loads of happy passengers. 

Of course the children of Canada skate and 
play hockey. The lakes and ponds are frozen 
over for many months, so that parties are con- 
tinually made up for skating and games on the 
ice. 

One must certainly not forget to mention 
sleigh-rides. There is no place in the world 
where the people enjoy sleigh-riding more. 
They wrap themselves up in warm furs, and 
spring into the pretty sleighs to which gaily 
decked horses are harnessed. Jingle, jingle, 
sound the bells, and when the word is given, 
away move the sleighs filled w^ith their merry 
loads. 

The Big Cities. 

Although Canada has been under English rule 
for a long time, yet many French people have 
continued to live there. In fact, in the province 
of Quebec there are more French than English. 
The old part of the city of Quebec looks much 



Little Folks of Canada 107 

to-day as it did in the long ago, when Wolfe 
climbed the cliff and took the French army by 
surprise. Along the narrow streets there are 
many quaint old houses with peaked roofs, in 
whose gardens French-Canadian children play 
the games and sing the songs of France. Here 
and there you will see an altar on which flowers 
have been placed, and people bowing before the 
image of the Virgin Mary. 

If you visit Quebec, you will certainly go to 
the citadel. Far above the water it stands, on 
the summit of the cliff, while just below it lies 
the old city, with its high, pointed roofs, and 
queer gates opening into old-fashioned gardens. 
Far, far below lies the beautiful St. Lawrence, 
where ships of many countries lie at anchor. 
Immense rafts of lumber come floating down 
the river, to be sent on the waiting ships to 
other lands. On some of these rafts are tiny 
houses for the men who have rowed them from 
the forests, hundreds of miles up the river. 

Before you leave the city you will walk out 
on the Plains of Abraham which stretch into 
the country back of the citadel. There the 
great battle was fought that gave Canada to 
the English; and there in the summer of 1908 a 



io8 Little Folks of North America 

great celebration was held. Three hundred 
years ago the city of Quebec was founded, and 
in memory of this, many thousands of people 
gathered to see the pageants, representing the 
great things that have happened there. The 
city was gay with flags and bright-colored ban- 
ners. There were concerts, balls and grand 
dinners. The Prince of Wales himself was 
there to take part in the good time. The pa- 
geants were the best part of the celebration, of 
course. They were given on the Plains of Abra- 
ham, and hundreds of men, women and children 
took part. Thousands of people gathered in the 
open-air theatre to look on. 

Montreal is another beautiful city. It is built 
on an island in the St. Lawrence River. Most 
of the children there are of French blood, but 
there are also many boys and girls of Irish, 
Scotch and English families. They are all 
proud of the wonderful bridge, nearly two miles 
long, that crosses the river at Montreal, and of 
the beautiful cathedral that will hold ten thou- 
sand people. They, as well as the children of 
Quebec, see ships of many countries anchored 
near their homes. Many of these ships have 



Little Folks of Canada 109 

crossed the ocean to receive the lumber and furs 
that Canada wishes to send to other lands. 

The capital of Canada is Ottawa, in the 
province of Ontario. It is also on the St. Law- 
rence. High up above the water, on the river 
banks, stand many beautiful buildings, where all 
the business of the government of Canada is car- 
ried on. Ottawa is a beautiful place for a home 
and the children who live there should be very 
happy. They have the winter sports of Que- 
bec, while on the hot summer days they can 
sail in and out among the islands of the river, 
or picnic under the trees of the forests only a 
short distance away. 

On the Farms. 

In your grandfather's time, few people ex- 
cept the Indians and half-breeds, were living on 
the prairies over which Mackenzie made his 
way on his journey westward. There were no 
roads there in those days ; no tracks over which 
trains filled with passengers went flying by. 
Great herds of buffaloes wandered about, feed- 
ing on the tall prairie grass, while here and 
there little red children ran in and out of their 



110 Little Folks of North America 

wigwams, and danced about the camp-fires. 

To-day scarcely a buffalo is left in the land, 
the shriek of the steam engine is often heard, 
while many comfortable farm houses can be seen. 
In the summer time there is much to do, even 
for the little folks. The boys help weed the 
vegetable gardens, and care for the cows and the 
horses, while their fathers are busy in the fields 
of wheat and oats that stretch over many acres. 
The girls learn to darn and sew, as well as wash 
dishes and help their mothers make bread and 
pies for the hungry workmen. 

Sometimes the farmer raises only hay, but the 
big crops must be cared for very carefully and 
the boys do their share of the work. Ranches 
where cattle and horses are raised are also found 
on the prairies. Certainly no place could be 
better for this work, since the broad acres of 
tall grass make the best feeding-grounds possi- 
ble. 

When August comes, the men and boys get 
out their guns and watch for the coming of the 
prairie chickens. Later on, the wild ducks and 
geese appear in large flocks. This is the time 
for the boys to take their canoes and a few sup- 
plies, and camp out on the shores of the lakes 



Little Folks of Canada ill 

and ponds, for they know that the birds love 
the water and are sure to seek it. There will 
be feasting in the big farm-houses now, because 
there will be plenty of tender wild ducks to 
roast, and the cellars are full of the vegetables 
raised in the gardens. 

Besides the autumn shooting and the feasts 
that follow, there are many other good times 
for the young folks on the big farms. They 
meet together for singing and dancing, they play 
tennis, they have games of hockey, both on land 
and ice, they have jolly sleigh rides in the frosty 
air, they skate and they curl, and, of course, 
the small boys and girls make snow-forts and 
houses that will last without melting for a month 
at a time. If you who live in warmer lands 
should pity them for having such long, cold 
winters and so much snow, the children would 
laugh at the idea. They would tell you that 
they love the winter and hate to have it come 
to an end. They can have such jolly times out 
of doors, and then, when they are tired of their 
rough sports, they can gather around roaring 
fires in the big living-rooms of the houses, and 
listen to the stories the older folks tell them of 
the days of long ago. 



112 Little Folks of North America 

In a Lumber Camp. 

For many years the white settlers in Canada 
have been busy cutting down trees in the big 
pine forests, yet they still stretch for many miles 
through the country. When the autumn comes 
the children of the lumber-men hear their fath- 
ers tell of the winter's work before them. They 
are going out into the forests to live, and will 
not be home again for many months. A party 
of these lumber-men start out together. They 
carry everything they will need for their rough 
house-keeping, — a few kettles and dishes for 
cooking, some heavy blankets, a supply of flour 
for bread, salt-pork, tea and molasses. 

The last good-bye is said and they start out 
on their long journey to the forests. As soon 
as they reach the place for the winter camp 
they set to work to build a house of logs. In 
the middle of the roof a place is left open, to 
let out the smoke when a fire is burning inside. 
Around the side of the big room, the men build 
bunks in which to sleep at night, and in the 
middle they make a fire-place, where the blaz- 
ing logs on winter evenings will send out such 



Little Folks of Canada 113 

warmth and cheer, that Jack Frost will not dare 
to venture through the cracks in the walls. 

The lumber-men are happy in their work. 
All day long the sound of their axes rings through 
the forest, while they vie with each other in 
cutting down the big trees. Then when night 
comes and their supper of bread, tea and fried 
pork is finished, they gather around the fire to 
smoke and tell stories. The weeks pass quickly, 
and with the coming of spring, immense 
piles of logs are ready to go to the saw- 
mills. 

When the ice begins to break up, it is a sign 
to the men to bind the logs into cribs. Thirty 
or forty logs are enough for one crib. The 
cribs are fastened together to form rafts, which 
are set floating down the rivers. Some of the 
men ride on the rafts and guide them by means 
of long poles tipped with steel, to prevent them 
from running aground. Others of the party go 
at once to the saw-mills, to be ready to receive 
the logs when they arrive. Buzz-z-z sounds 
through the air, as the big wheels turn and the 
trees of the forest are rapidly changed into strong 
lumber. 



114 Little Folks of North America 

Beyond the Mountains. 

Let us now cross the Rocky Mountains, and 
make a short visit in British Columbia. It is 
the most beautiful province in Canada, with its 
mountains covered with forests and its rivers 
stocked with fish. The children who live near 
the Fraser River, can tell wonderful fish stories, 
for at a certain time of the year, millions of 
salmon leave the ocean and make their way up 
this river. Then big folks and little are busy 
with nets, hauling in the fish and carrying them 
to the canneries. 

Gold is also found on the Fraser River, while 
the mountains near-by are rich in other minerals. 

The Klondike Mines. 

Far up in the northwest of Canada, near the 
borders of Alaska, are the famous Klondike 
mines. You have probably heard of them, and 
of the long, hard journey a person must take 
to get there. Such wonderful stories have been 
told of the riches one can bring away from these 
mountains, that many a young man has left home 
and friends to seek his fortune there. Now-a- 
days it is easier to reach the Klondike mines 



Little Folks of Canada 115 

than it was a few years ago, but the country 
is cold and dreary and most of the food must 
be brought from a distance, so that few white 
children have found their way there. Yet as 
they sit in their cosy homes, they are glad to 
listen to the stories of that wild country, told to 
them by the brave men who have been to the 
Klondike gold regions. 



CHAPTER V 

Little Folks of Labrador 

EAST of the large bay where Henry Hud- 
son lost his life is the peninsula of Lab- 
rador. Although it is farther south than 
Greenland or Alaska, its shores are very bleak 
and bare, because of cold winds that blow inland 
from the ocean. You can easily guess that this 
country is the home of Eskimos who seem the 
best fitted of all people to live in the lands of 
ice and snow. 

Some white children are to be found there, 
however. Their fathers are fishermen who get 
a living for their families out of the icy waters 
of the ocean. Sometimes, too, they hunt the deer, 
or set traps for other wild animals. In the sum- 
mer time the children search for birds' eggs, 
and in the autumn the men and boys keep on 
the lookout for eider-ducks, wild swans, ducks, 
geese and ptarmigan. The meat of these birds 
is sweet and tender, while the feathers make 
warm beds, pillows and quilts. 

116 



Little Folks of Labrador 117 

The children of the fishermen paddle about 
in the rough waters in their canoes when many 
other children would be afraid to venture out 
from the shore. They ride over the snow in 
low sledges drawn by half-tamed, surly dogs. 
They spend many a day fishing for cod and 
salmon. They hunt for the berries, ripening in 
the sunshine of the short summer. They play 
with their Eskimo neighbors whom they meet 
once a week to study their Bible lessons with 
the kind missionaries, who have come to live 
among them. 

Each Eskimo house is entered by a long, low 
passage, made of logs and turf. The floor of 
the one big room is covered with boards, and 
a long, wooden platform at one end is the sleep- 
ing place for the whole family. On another 
side is a fireplace lined with pebbles, where the 
mother cooks the food for the family. There 
is a window in the house or maybe there are 
two, so that altogether the Eskimos of Labrador 
can be far more comfortable than their brothers 
and sisters of Greenland. 

They live in much the same way, however. 
They dress in furs; they fish; they kill seals; 
they hunt the deer; they ride over the country 



li8 Little Folks of North America 

in low sledges drawn by unruly dogs ; they make 
kayaks, in which they paddle about among the 
islands near to the shore. They are not obliged 
to build snow or stone houses like their brothers 
in Greenland. Cold as it is, forests of spruce 
and pine grow not very far inland ; so that they 
are able to get plenty of logs for the walls of 
their houses. These they plaster so thickly with 
turf, that the wind cannot make its way inside. 

The Indians of Labrador. 

As you leave the coast, and travel inland, you 
will find that the air becomes warmer and that 
there are more trees and plants. The country 
is much pleasanter, and no doubt this is the rea- 
son that the Indians of Labrador prefer to live 
here in winter rather than on the coast. The 
redmen are great hunters, too, and as there are 
many wild animals in the forests, they spend 
the autumn and winter trapping and shooting. 
Here and there along the ponds and streams 
you may see the bark wigwams of the redmen. 

Children dressed in skins go skimming past 
you over the snow fields. They wear snow-shoes 
on their feet, so they can travel fast. When 
they are tired of this sport, they can take a ride 



Little Folks of Labrador 119 

on a dog-sledge, or play with their puppies. 
The boys help their fathers set traps for martens 
and foxes ; they go on porcupine hunts ; they 
search for beaver villages, and sometimes they 
come hurrying home to say that they have come 
upon a bear or the tracks of a lynx or an otter. 

The girls learn to embroider moccasins and 
leggins with beads and porcupine quills; they 
bring wood for the fires and drinking water 
from the streams; they weave baskets. After a 
deer-hunt they dry the meat and grind it to 
make pemmican. Indeed, they learn all those 
things that Indians think are necessary for the 
making of good and helpful women. So the 
days pass and the years follow each other in 
bleak Labrador. 



CHAPTER VI 

Little Folks of Newfoundland 

YOU remember that when Cartier went to 
Canada hoping to find a comfortable 
place where his people could settle, he 
stopped first at a large island ofif the eastern 
coast, giving it the name of Newfoundland. 
But he did not stay there. The high crags 
reaching out into the sea and the rocky shores 
seemed to frown upon him and he decided to 
go farther where Mother Nature should give 
him a more friendly welcome. At that time 
Indians were living along the coast, getting their 
food by catching fish and trapping wild animals. 
No white men came to settle in Newfoundland 
till many years after Cartier's visit, for like him, 
they chose to make their homes in a more invit- 
ing country. 

Now, however, many rosy-cheeked boys and 
girls live on the island. Their fathers are fish- 
ermen who have settled there because they have 

120 



Little Folks of Newfoundland 121 

found it is one of the best fishing-grounds in 
the world. Off the southeast coast stretches a 
sandbank at least three hundred miles long, and 
in the waters nearby millions of cod and haddock 
are found every year. It is no wonder, there- 
fore, that not only the fishermen who live in 
Newfoundland, but people from Canada and the 
United States, and even from countries across 
the ocean, gather on the shores of the island 
every year to fish. 

Heavy fogs hang over these shores for a large 
part of the year, and are caused in a curious 
way. There is a warm current that flows north- 
ward through the Atlantic Ocean, making the 
western coast of Greenland so much warmer 
than the eastern that most of the people there 
choose to live on that side of the island. But 
there is also a very cold Arctic current flowing 
southward, filling the air along the eastern coast 
of Labrador with frost. These two currents 
meet off the Newfoundland shore, and as the 
warm and cold come together, clouds of vapor 
rise in the air. It is the smoke of a water 
battle. 

Notwithstanding the fogs and the dampness, 
the children of Newfoundland love their home 



122 Little Folks of North America 

dearly. They love the deep and narrow bays 
that reach far into the land, and they often make 
up sailing parties to the small islands that dot 
the clear, deep waters. They love the blue sky 
of the summer. They watch with delight the 
icebergs that float by from time to time in their 
journey from the frozen north. When winter 
comes these children search along the shore for 
the seals that play on the floating cakes of ice 
and bask in the sunlight. Best of all they enjoy 
the famous ''silver thaw" of Newfoundland, per- 
haps the most beautiful sight in all the world. 

This ''silver thaw" or ice-storm, is seen only 
in winter. It is caused by a heavy fall of rain 
when the air is very cold. As the rain falls, 
it turns to ice on everything it touches. The 
branches of the trees and the tiniest twigs upon 
them are coated with garments of ice which 
grow thicker and thicker as the storm continues. 
Every bush and shrub receives the same beau- 
tiful dress. At last the clouds pass and the sun 
shines out in all his glory. Then the world 
around is changed in an instant into a wonder- 
land of beauty. It seems as though one were 
surrounded by myriads of diamonds, each one 
glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. The 



Little Folks of Newfoundland 123 

riches of Aladdin seem nothing beside them. 

Neither the fishermen nor the children care 
to explore the inland country very far. There 
are many high hills there, but they are bare 
and rocky. Cattle could not be raised easily 
in such places, nor could gardens be planted. 
So the people are content to stay near the shores 
and get a living from the waters near by. 

During winter the men and boys are busy 
mending their nets and putting their boatS: in 
order. They also go out in the woods to cut 
down the trees to get fuel enough for the coming 
year. Yet they have much spare time, so there 
is a good deal of visiting between the homes, 
and many merry parties are held where both 
old folks and young dance and sing and play 
games. 

As soon as the spring opens the fishing season 
begins. The boats are brought out from win- 
ter quarters, the sails are spread, and the har- 
bors seem -alive once more. There is work 
enough for everyone now. The men and boys 
are on the water from morning till night, while 
the women and girls are as busy as bees, curing 
the fish after it is brought on shore. 

The children of Newfoundland are taught to 



124 Little Folks of North America 

salute the English flag because they, as well as 
Canada, are under the rule of Great Britain. 
Yet Newfoundland and the peninsula of Lab- 
rador never became a part of the Dominion of 
Canada. 

The capital of Newfoundland is the city of 
St. Johns. Its deep harbor is very beautiful. 
High cliffs of red sandstone rise on each side 
and protect the ships anchored in the waters 
below from the fiercest gales. The city is built 
on the slope of a hill on the northern side of the 
harbor. On the summit of the hill, above the 
rows of houses in the streets below is a beautiful 
cathedral where many of the people go to wor- 
ship on Sunday. In good weather the children 
of the city, who wake early enough, can turn 
their eyes out towards the ocean and watch the 
lovely clouds of the sunrise, — fairy palaces of 
crimson and gold which vanish from their sight 
as they are looking. 

After the Birds. 

Great numbers of visitors come to Newfound- 
land every year. Many of them are hunters 
who have heard of the game to be found in 
the forests and along the shores of the lakes and 



Little Folks of Newfoundland 125 

ponds. The ptarmigan, the wild duck and 
goose, the plover, the curlew, and still other 
birds are to be found there. 

The best time for bird hunting is after the 
flies and mosquitoes have said good-by to the 
country. Then it is that many strangers step 
off the steamer at St. Johns. With guns and 
game-bags they make their way towards the 
^'barrens" of the inland country. These barrens 
are often stretches where there are no trees, and 
little else grows. The wild birds flock there 
in great: numbers, for they have found that there 
are wild berries to be had for the picking even 
in that barren country, and they feast and feast 
till they are plump and fat and ready for the 
sportsman's game-bag. 

It seems so quiet and safe out on the lonely 
barrens that the birds are not on the look-out 
for danger, when suddenly bang, bang! sounds 
through the air and some of the birds out of 
a happy flock fall to the ground,, while the rest 
fly away in great fright. 

Herds of reindeer wander over the lonely 
parts of the country in search of the moss that 
is their favorite food. They have beautiful 
branching horns and their short legs are very 



126 Little Folks of North America 

strong. They have a wonderful scent, which 
warns them of danger, and they easily take 
fright. Often, when a hunter has crept upon 
them ever so softly, they have discovered his 
nearness and away they scudded over the hills 
and rocks where he would not dare to venture, 
and he has been obliged to give up the chase 
for a time, at any rate. 

The Indians of the island do much better 
than the white hunters. They know how to 
outwit the reindeer and to approach them from 
such a direction that the wind will not carry 
the scent. For this reason the white sportsmen 
have learned that if they wish to be successful 
they had best take an Indian guide with them. 
Even then they have to be so careful that they 
think it great sport, and are very proud when 
they can show their friends some fine antlers 
which they have brought home after a hunting 
trip in Newfoundland. 

The Copper Mines. 

On the eastern coast of Newfoundland there 
is a beautiful bay to which the French gave the 
name of Notre Dame or. Our Lady. It has 
many arms which reach far into the land; some 



Little Folks of Newfoundland 127 

of these are so deep that they make good places 
for ships to anchor. Others are very small and 
the water is so smooth that little children can 
paddle about in it without fear. 

This bay of Notre Dame is now famous for 
something besides its beauty, as copper mines 
have been discovered on its shores. One of the 
fichest of these is at Bett's Cove and many men 
are now at work getting the precious ore and 
shipping it to other lands. 



CHAPTER VII 

Little Folks of the United States 

CANADA is partly separated from the 
country south of it by a chain of beau- 
tiful lakes called the "Five Great 
Lakes." They are so large that a person can 
sail many days on them, passing from one to 
another and sometimes losing sight of land. At 
times the water is so rough that the traveler 
becomes ill from the rolling of the big steamer 
and says, 'T am seasick," although he is far 
from the ocean. The northern waters of these 
lakes wash the shores of Canada, while on the 
south the children of the United States play on 
the beaches and swim in the waves. 

These children are proud of the fact that 
they live in the United States, and call their 
country "The land of the free and the home of 
the brave." Their people have come from many 
lands. French, German, Irish, Polish and 
Jewish boys and girls, besides those of many 

128 



Little Folks of the United States 129 

other countries, sit side by side in the school- 
rooms and play happily together with their tops 
and dolls. 

The United States of America, for that is the 
full name of this country, reaches from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific, and from Canada on the 
north to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on 
the south. It is a country of high mountains, 
fertile valleys, broad plains and mighty rivers. 
Its children know neither the terrible cold of 
the far north nor the burning heat of the equator, 
for they live in the temperate belt of the earth. 
No season of the year is long enough to tire 
them, for spring follows close upon the winter, 
and is soon followed by the pleasant warmth of 
summer. Then comes the autumn when the 
leaves change their color and Mother Nature 
makes ready for her winter's rest. At last the 
snow falls and covers the earth with her white 
mantle. 

The Mound Builders. 

In the long ago a strange people lived in the 
United States. They left no books to tell their 
story, but here and there through the country 
mounds of earth which they built are still stand- 



130 Little Folks of North America 

ing. Some of them are shaped like birds with 
wings outspread, others have the forms of fishes, 
snakes, and human beings. Still other mounds 
show that they must have been used as altars 
upon which sacrifices were burned, and others, 
again, contain tools, dishes idols and ornaments. 
Some of the ornaments and dishes were deco- 
rated with the finest carvings. Heads of people, 
frogs and birds are still to be seen on the pipes 
that have been preserved in the mounds all these 
years. Tools have been found to show the 
mound-builders, as we call these people, knew 
how to work metal, and other things tell the 
story that the men of that long ago were wise 
in many ways and could not have been savages. 
There are earthworks near some of the mounds 
that seem to have been built as forts, so they 
probably fought in wars. Yet we can only guess 
as to their life, for no one knows their history. 

The Indians. 

When the first white men visited America 
they found Indians living throughout the coun- 
try, along the banks of the rivers and on the 
shores of the ocean. Their homes were for the 
most part tents covered with bark or the skins 



Little Folks of the United States 131 

of animals. When the boys were still tiny little 
fellows they learned to use bows and arrows so 
that as they grew up they would be good hunters 
and warriors like their fathers. 

In some parts of the country the girls helped 
their mothers tend fields of maize which to this 
day is called Indian corn. Cakes were made of 
this and eaten with the fish and game killed by 
the men. 

In other places the women and children gath- 
ered the wild rice that grew in the shallow 
ponds. This, together with the berries picked 
by the girls, the honey taken from the nests of 
wild bees by the boys, and the sap from the 
maple trees, added a good deal to the daily 
fare of meat and fish. 

The red children were taught to bear cold 
and hunger without complaining. There were 
days when they feasted and had all the good 
things to eat they could wish for. But their 
parents did not understand the need of looking 
ahead. During the summer the berries and the 
honey, the fish and the game were plentiful, 
and the people did not seem to remember that 
winter would soon follow when the earth's 
mantle of snow and the ice on the rivers would 



132 Little Folks of North America 

make it harder for them to get food. So there 
were times when they and their little ones went 
hungry to bed and woke up in the morning 
with no breakfast before them. 

The boys grew up with a love of war, and 
looked admiringly at the men when they went 
away from the village with hideous, painted 
faces, and with tomahawks and hatchets at their 
sides, to take other unfriendly tribes by surprise 
and to scalp as many of their enemies as pos- 
sible. 

While the boys were busy with mock battles 
and hunts in the forests after game with their 
fathers, the girls worked with their mothers 
weaving baskets and tanning the skins of the 
wild animals brought home by the men. They 
also got wood for the fires and helped in the 
simple cooking. They played games with their 
brothers, too, and both boys and girls were never 
so happy as when sitting around the lodge fire, 
listening to the fairy tales told by their grand- 
mothers and to stories of war and the chase by 
the "braves," as they called their warriors. 

The parents of these red children did not need 
to work so hard for food and clothing as did 
the Indians of Canada, because summer in the 



Little Folks of the United States 133 

United States is longer and warmer, and winter 
is not so cold. 

With soft moccasins on their feet the Indians 
stole noiselessly over the forest paths, and in their 
light birch canoes they glided along the streams, 
with never a hat on the head and with light 
clothing on the body. They feared nothing save 
the war-whoop of enemies. 

There came a day when a white man and 
his followers appeared in the country. It was 
Leif, the son of Eric the Red, who had left 
his home in Greenland and started out in search 
of adventure. He steered his course southward 
and came in time to Newfoundland, but the 
country did not please him. So he continued 
on his way till he reached the eastern coast of 
the United States, and there he landed. During 
his stay Leif and his companions met no other 
people, but to their great delight they found 
vines from which hung large clusters of grapes, 
and for this reason they called the place Vin- 
land. When they were ready to leave they 
loaded their vessel with grapes, together with 
lumber from the forests, which was even more 
precious to them than the grapes, because as 
you know, there were no trees in Greenland. 



134 Little Folks of North America 

Then they set sail for home to tell of the land 
they had visited which had seemed so warm and 
beautiful to them. 

After Leif, other Norsemen came who settled 
along the shore of this country and lived here 
for a while. They met the dark-skinned natives 
with whom they had trouble. After a while 
they went away, never to come again. During 
their stay here a Norse baby was born, to whom 
the name Snorri was given, and this boy was, 
no doubt, the first white child born in the United 
States. 

After Many Years. 

More than four hundred years passed by and 
the red men lived on in their own savage way, 
hunting, fishing, and making war upon each 
other. Then something happened which led in 
time to great changes for the red children. It 
was in the year 1492 that Columbus discovered 
a small island of the West Indies, lying south- 
east of the United States. The natives, who 
were gentler and less war-like than the other 
Indians of North America, greeted him with 
delight and brought him presents of fruit and 
gold. 



Little Folks of the United States 135 

Not long after the coming of Columbus many 
Spaniards, hearing of the rich treasures of the 
West Indies, followed him there and settled. 
One of them, named Ponce de Leon, stayed long 
enough to gain great riches. But he was fast 
growing old and all his wealth could not keep 
him young. Then he began to listen to the sto- 
ries the Indians told him of a land not far away, 
in which there was such a wonderful fountain 
that a person had but to drink of its waters to 
live forever. They called it ''The fountain of 
youth." 

Ponce de Leon's eyes grew bright. If only 
he could find that fountain! He set sail with 
a few followers, and one beautiful Easter Sun- 
day he came in sight of a land rich in flowers. 
Such a land, he thought, must be the one to 
contain the fountain he was seeking. 

The sails were furled and the Spaniard and 
his friends stepped on shore. "Let us call the 
place Florida, for it is a land of flowers," he 
said, and so this peninsula, reaching out from 
the southeastern part of the United States, has 
been called Florida to this day. 

Ponce de Leon remained in the country for 
some time, wandering about and drinking the 



136 Little Folks of North America 

water of stream and lake, yet as you may believe, 
he failed to discover the fountain he sought. 
And, alas! instead of youth, he met death, for, 
as he was about to leave, he was pierced by the 
poisoned arrow of an Indian who did not trust 
the white men like his brothers of the West 
Indies. 

Through Ponce de Leon's discovery on that 
beautiful Easter Sunday other Spaniards fol- 
lowed him to Florida and settled there with their 
wives and children. 

The Coming of the English. 

French settlers followed the Spaniards to the 
New World, but except in Canada, they did not 
stay long. 

Nearly a hundred years passed when at last 
English ships began to visit the country north 
of Florida. They carried home wonderful sto- 
ries of necklaces set with pearls as big as peas 
and worn commonly by the Indian maidens, of 
countless hares and deer in the woods, of de- 
licious grapes, cucumbers and melons that grew 
wild on the vines, and of rich forests of oak trees 
that grew larger and better than those of Eng- 
land. Then, too, a strange plant grew abun- 



Little Folks of the United States 137 

dantly in die fields. This plant the Indians put 
in pipes and smoked. 

^'A colony should certainly be planted in that 
beautiful country," Sir Walter Raleigh told the 
queen. 

She listened thoughtfully to what he said, and 
not long afterwards a party of men and women 
sailed from England and crossed the ocean to 
live in Virginia, as the new home was called 
in honor of the virgin queen, Elizabeth. Gov- 
ernor Dare was the leader. 

The colony settled on an island near the shore, 
and here was born the first English white child 
of the United States. The new baby, whose 
grandfather was Governor Dare, was called Vir- 
ginia like her home, but sad to say, no one knows 
how long she lived nor what befell her, for 
Governor Dare went back to England for a time, 
and when he returned little Virginia and her 
people had disappeared and there was no one 
to tell where they had gone. Perhaps the In- 
dians had killed them, or had made slaves of 
them and taken them far inland. At any rate, 
none of the neighboring red men would tell 
what had happened to the white strangers who 
had come to live among them. 



138 Little Folks of North America 

Other English settlers followed soon after- 
wards, however, and built villages among the 
Indians; and among the oak forests of Virginia 
little white children were born in rough log 
houses and played on the beaches along the shore. 
Their fathers planted fields of corn, and tobacco 
which they had learned to smoke. They hunted 
deer, hares, and wild turkeys in the forests. 

These early English settlers built walls around 
their villages in case of sudden attack, for they 
could not trust their red neighbors, who were not 
pleased to have the white strangers settling in 
the country around them. 

The little English children were generally 
happy. The country around them was beauti- 
ful, the birds sang sweet songs in the trees near 
by, and there were flowers and fruits in plenty. 
When Christmas came they watched the Yule 
log burn in the big fireplace, and gathered 
around tables loaded with roasted turkeys, ven- 
ison and other good things to eat. 

Years passed by, and other settlers came to 
America. Most of them were from England, 
but there were some from Holland and Sweden 
and other countries of Europe. 



Little Folks of the United States 139 

Among the new-comers were the Quakers un- 
der William Penn, who called their new home in 
America Pennsylvania, meaning, Penn's woods. 
They were gentle and peaceful and had little 
trouble with their Indian neighbors. 

Then there were the Pilgrims who landed at 
Plymouth in New England one bleak Novem- 
ber day. They were quiet and sober-faced. 
The) left their old home to seek one in which 
they would be free to worship God in the way 
they thought best. As it happened, they chose 
for themselves the coldest corner of the United 
States in which to settle and they had before 
them years of struggle and hard work. 

They found the winters in New England 
colder than those they had known in England 
and the sharp winds crept in between the cracks 
in the walls of their rough log houses, chilling 
their backs even when they were gathered around 
the blazing logs in the big fireplaces. The 
crops of corn and beans were often scanty, be- 
cause the soil was poor, and around them not 
far away were the Indians, some of whom 
scowled and muttered ugly words when they 
sooke of the white settlers who were hunting 



140 Little Folks of North America 

the game in the forests, and planting gardens on 
the land to which they thought they alone had 
the right. 

The children of the Pilgrims were taught to 
be very quiet and sober in their ways. They 
loved to listen to the squirrels chattering in the 
trees, and to watch the rabbits scamper across 
the paths. They gathered blueberries and black- 
berries in summer and chestnuts and hickory 
nuts in the autumn. The boys dragged their 
sisters on rough sleds over the snow in winter 
and waded with them in the brooks as the days 
grew warmer, and at such times they laughed 
and chattered like all happy children. But 
when they reached home their faces became so- 
ber and their voices low, for they were taught 
that among older folks children should be seen 
and not heard. 

When evening came they sat in straight chairs 
in the big kitchen which was the ^'living room" 
as well, while the men talked over the day's 
work, and the women knit socks for the family. 

Sometimes as the little Pilgrims settled them- 
selves for the night's sleep they were roused by 
the howling of wolves outside. They shuddered 
as they thought, "Suppose that had been the war 



Little Folks of the United States 141 

whoop of the Indians coming to attack our vil- 
lage." 

On Sunday when the Pilgrims went to church 
the men led the way armed with muskets which 
might be needed at any moment in defending 
their families. 

After the Pilgrims, the Puritans came to New 
England. They were even more sober and 
strict in their ways than the Pilgrims, and they, 
too, had trouble with their Indian neighbors. 

Perhaps the joUiest people who came from 
Europe were the Dutch, who settled on the 
Hudson River in New York. You remember 
poor Henry Hudson who was left to his sad fate 
in Hudson Bay. Before he went there he dis- 
covered the beautiful river of that name, and 
when he went back to Europe he told the king 
of Holland about the Indians he had met, and 
of the loads of rich furs which they brought 
home from their hunting trips. 

His words were not forgotten, and so it came 
to pass that the thrifty Dutchman made settle- 
ments in that part of the New World which 
they claimed through the discovery of Henry 
Hudson. They were not poor, like the Pilgrims 
east of them. They brought chests of linen and 



142 Little Folks of North America 

silver from Holland, and they built comfort- 
able homes for themselves on the banks of the 
Hudson River, with porches where they sat with 
their children on summer evenings, telling fairy 
stories and laughing together in their own jolly 
way. The children^^s eyes grew bright as they 
listened to the stories, and as they looked out on 
the woods and fields in the silvery moonlight, 
they fancied they could see faries in gauzy green 
robes dancing on the grass and little brown 
gnomes stepping out from under the rocks. 

The Dutch children had the grandest time at 
Christmas. They hung up their stockings by 
the fireplace the night before and then, as they 
lay in their beds, too much excited to sleep, they 
fancied they heard the reindeer of the good 
Santa Claus pawing away the snow on the roof 
overhead. Of course there were presents the 
next morning and a lovely Christmas tree, fol- 
lowed by a feast of all good things that grew 
about the new home. Yes, Christmas was the 
best day in all the year to the rosy-cheeked roly- 
poly Dutch children with blue eyes and flaxen 
hair. 

While they were having such good times, their 
fathers were trading with the Indians with whom 



Little Folks of the United States 143 

they had less trouble than the Pilgrims and 
Puritans. They sold the red men beads and 
blankets, guns and trinkets, and in exchange 
took furs of the marten and mink, the beaver 
and otter, which the Indians shot or trapped in 
the country around. Once in a while a big ship 
from Holland sailed into New York Harbor, 
bringing tea and sugar, blankets and dressgoods 
for the Dutchmen and their families, and were 
then reloaded with the furs obtained from the 
Indians. 

As time passed by the settlements along the 
shores of the United States grew larger and 
more numerous. The Indians scowled more 
and more deeply and there were dreadful wars 
between them and the white men. In their spare 
time the settlers made roads through the coun- 
try and cleared away some of the forests. In 
the north they traded with the Indians for furs 
and planted fields of corn and other grains and 
vegetables. Farther south tobacco and cotton 
were raised on the plantations. Sheep were 
tended on the hillsides and the wives of the set- 
tlers carded and spun the wool and wove it in 
hand-looms into clothing for their families. 
Cargoes of Negro slaves were brought from 



1/]/] Little Folks of North America 

Africa to work on the plantations. The cotton 
that was raised there was sent across the Atlantic 
to be made into cloth in the factories of Europe. 

During all these years the white men did not 
move far inland because of the Indians, and of 
mountains which must be crossed. At last, how- 
ever, some brave men ventured out alone into 
the wilderness beyond. They found there were 
valleys between the mountains, and through 
these they passed to the other side. They often 
had to hide from the watchful Indians, not dar- 
ing even to make camp-fires lest they should be 
discovered. 

These explorers found that on the other side 
of the Appalachian Mountains, for that was 
the name given to them, was a beautiful coun- 
try, richer by far than that on the eastern side 
where they had been living. There were also 
many rivers flowing westward, making the soil 
rich and fertile. Forests of maple and elm 
trees, as well as pines, spruces, and oaks which 
were abundant along the coast, were to be seen 
there. 

When the explorers returned home they told 
such bright stories of the country to the west 
that the families of some of them agreed to go 




From Copyrighted Stereograph 

by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



Picking Cotton on a Georgia Plantation. 



Little Folks of the United States 145 

there and live. In those days there were no 
trains to carry them and not a single road 
through the mountain passes. The journey had 
to be made on foot or on horseback, and few 
household goods could be carried. At any mo- 
ment the travelers might be surprised by Indians, 
so the men were obliged to keep their muskets 
loaded and ready to shoot every moment of the 
way. 

When the place for the new home was 
reached the men and boys set to work to cut 
down the trees and make a clearing, while the 
women prepared the meals. Everyone must eat 
and sleep out-doors while a rough log house 
was being built. All through the night a big 
fire was kept blazing to keep the wolves and 
other wild animals at a distance. 

The new house was easily furnished. A few 
chairs, a rough table, and some bedsteads were 
made from the trees that had been cut down. 
The feather beds brought from the old home 
were spread on the slats of the bedsteads; the 
family Bible was laid on the table; the kettles, 
also brought from home, were hung on cranes 
over the fireplace, and housekeeping in the 
wilderness began. 



146 Little Folks of North America 

Notwithstanding the hard life, the girls and 
their brothers grew up brave and strong and 
ready to push still farther into the wilderness 
than their fathers had done. West of them, — 
far west as it seemed then — was a mighty river 
flowing from north to south through the coun- 
try. It was the Mississippi, or Father of 
Waters, as the Indians well called it, because so 
many large streams flowed into it on either side. 
The Frenchmen from Canada had long since 
sailed along the Great Lakes and down the whole 
length of the Mississippi, and for this reason had 
claimed the land on both sides and made settle- 
ments at different places. 

Now, as the English settlers moved westward, 
they did not wish the French to own any part 
of the country. By and by there was a great 
war between the two peoples — the French who 
held Canada and the Mississippi, and the Eng- 
lish colonies who were living in the eastern 
part of the United States. Then came the battle 
of Quebec and the French gave up their rights 
in North America. 

But there were other troubles still, for 
wars took place with the Indians who had be- 
come bitter enemies, but they were beaten 



Little Folks of the United States 147 

again and again, and driven still farther west 
till few tribes were left east of the Mississippi. 

Then there was another war — a very great 
one this time — and with England herself. The 
Revolution was fought through seven long years. 
With General Washington as their leader, the 
people fought on to victory, when they in truth 
made their country the free and independent 
United States of America. 

After this more and more men took their wives 
and children and traveled west in search of new 
homes. They had found by this time that in 
many places there were great plains where they 
did not need to make a clearing, for the ground 
was covered with grass for miles in every direc- 
tion. Some of these grassy plains, or prairies, 
were quite level. Others stretched in long, low 
waves of earth. The soil was rich and the grass 
grew long and thick. There could be no better 
place in the world for raising corn, Wheat and 
hay, or feeding cattle. 

Rough roads had been built through the wil- 
derness by this time, so the women and children, 
together with the bedding and dishes, were 
bundled into big clumsy wagons with rounded, 
canvas tops called prairie-schooners. Horses or 



148 Little Folks of North America 

oxen were harnessed to the wagons and cows 
were hitched behind. Then away started the 
family for the distant prairies. 

All day long the people traveled, but when 
evening came the animals were unhitched from 
the "schooner" and allowed to feed on the grass ; 
supper was cooked over the camp-fire, and beds 
were made upon the bottom of the wagon, where 
the family would sleep during the night. 

Many days were often spent on the journey, 
but like everything else, it came to an end at last. 
Think if you can, of a sea of grass stretching 
around you as far as the eyes can see; not a 
building of any kind in sight; not even the smoke 
of a passing train to remind you that there are 
other people in the world; no sound in the air 
except the chirping of the crickets or the howling 
of the wolves; in summer, the blinding sun daz- 
zling your eyes and turning the grass a withered 
brown; in winter, a carpet of snow stretching 
around you over the earth in every direction. 
This was the life in store for the boys and girls 
who went out on the prairies to seek a home in 
the early days of this country. 

To be sure a herd of bison sometimes appeared 
near the children's home, and then the men 



Little Folks of the United States 149 

hurried out with their guns to kill as many as 
possible before the animals were put to flight. 
Before the coming of the white men these bison 
roamed together in thousands and the Indians of 
the plains made their tents and clothing from 
their skins and feasted on the flesh of the bison. 
Every year since that time they have grown 
scarcer till only a few are left in the country, 
and these are on exhibition in the parks of the 
west. 

After the sun set in the evening sky the chil- 
dren of the prairie did not venture far from 
home, both on account of prowling wolves, and 
for fear of the Indians who might be skulking 
near by. 

Lewis and Clark, and What They Saw. 

Not many years after the Revolution Thomas 
Jeflerson, the third president, did many things 
for the good of the United States. Through his 
advice the people purchased a great deal of land 
in the southern part of the country from France, 
to whom it had been given by Spain. It was 
called the Louisiana Purchase. 

Jefferson was not satisfied yet. He thought, 
"There is a vast country beyond us of which we 



150 Little Folks of North America 

know nothing. No one of our people has yet 
crossed it and reached the Pacific. This should 
certainly be done." 

He knew it would be a dangerous journey, for 
it was a wild country, roamed over by tribes of 
fierce Indians. Two men, however, offered to 
lead the expedition. Their names were Meri- 
wether Lewis and William Clarke. 

In the summer of 1803 they started out at the 
head of a party of men, carrying with them pres- 
ents for the Indians they might meet, three 
canoes, two horses which should help them in 
hunting game, and a few blankets and cooking 
utensils. 

During the winter they camped on the banks 
of the Mississippi, and with the coming of spring 
they began their journey up a broad river which 
emptied into it and which we know now as the 
Missouri. As the men followed the course of 
the river they moved farther and farther into 
the west. All summer long they slept under 
the stars, but as the cold winter set in and deep 
snows fell, they made rough cabins in which to 
live, and went no farther on their journey for 
several months. They killed bison and other 
game which furnished them with food, but they 



Little Folks of the United States 151 

could not keep the biting cold out of their huts, 
and they suffered with the cold. Fierce Indian 
tribes were around them on all sideSj friends were 
far away, but they had no thought of turning 
back. So, with the second spring, they pushed 
on. 

When they reached the source of the Missouri 
there were high mountains before them, much 
higher than the Appalachian, and with their 
summits crowned with snow. After a long, hard 
journey they reached the other side, and 
launched their canoes on a small stream which 
grew ever broader till it entered a large river. 
This was the Columbia, along which they 
traveled till the Pacific Ocean lay spread before 
their eyes. They had journeyed more than four 
thousands miles since they left the banks of the 
Mississippi and were the first white men to cross 
the United States. They had visited the homes 
of Indians who had never seen a white person 
before or even known there were such beings. 
They had crossed broad plains where thousands 
of bison fed on the rich grass. They had discov- 
ered broad rivers shaded by lofty forests and 
crossed mountains containing mines of gold and 
silver, which before long would be opened up 



152 Little Folks of North America 

to give their rich stores to the people of the 
United States. They still had before them the 
long and dangerous journey home, which they 
reached two years and four months after they had 
left it. 

There was great rejoicing among the people 
when the news spread of the safe return of the 
travelers and of the wonders they had to tell. 
From that time many boys and girls looked for- 
ward to moving into the great, far-western 
country with their parents. 

On a Wheat Farm. 

Many of the children of the prairies live on 
farms where wheat is raised. As the sun shines 
down on the broad fields, the tiny grains sprout 
and grow with astonishing quickness. Then, 
when the heavy dews fall at night and the earth 
cools, they get new strength for the next day, 
so that the farmers gather abundant crops- 

As the summer days pass by and the wheat 
ripens, the children in the big farm house get 
ready for an exciting time. Their mother makes 
dozens of pies and loaves of bread and cake. A 
cow and perhaps a hog or two, are killed and 
cut up, for an extra number of "hired hands" 



Little Folks of the United States 153 

begin to arrive. The farmer himself is un- 
usually busy. Big machines and engines are 
brought out from the barns to be cleaned and 
oiled, for the wheat is about to be harvested- 

It is interesting to watch the work go on in 
the fields, it is so different from that of the old 
days before the threshing and binding machines 
were invented. It seems almost like magic to 
the watching children as acre after acre of wav- 
ing grain is cut down, bound into sheaves and 
threshed, almost in the ^'twinkling of an eye." 

Then away it is whisked in big wagons to the 
flour mills in the town near by from which it is 
sent far and wide to be made into delicious bread 
for hungry boys and girls. 

The Cornfields. 

In the northern part of the prairies wheat 
grows best because it can bear a great deal of 
cool weather. But corn is different; warm, 
moist nights suit it well. So, although we can 
see corn growing all over the eastern part of 
the United States, it thrives best in the southern 
part of the prairies where the weather is much 
warmer than in the north. 

Corn is very fattening, so the farmers who 



154 Little Folks of North America 

raise this grain usually keep herds of cattle and 
many hogs. He stores much of the harvest in 
the barns to feed the "live stock" and raise them 
for market. 

On a Cattle Ranch. 

The boys of the prairie help their fathers, not 
only in the wheat and corn fields, but also in 
raising herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and great 
numbers of hogs. 

Beyond the prairies, yet east of the Rocky 
Mountains, are wide stretches of land called the 
Western Plains. Grass grows on these plains, 
but the soil is not so rich as on the prairies and 
is therefore not so good for farming. 

As the people moved farther west, settling on 
the prairies, they began to think what use could 
be made of the plains beyond. They decided 
that cattle could be raised there. But first the 
tribes of Indians who were roaming freely about 
must be forced to stay in certain parts of the 
country which the government of the United 
States reserved for them. 

Sad to say, many a little red child growing up 
on such a reservation had hate in his heart for 
the white men who had seized the land that was 



Little Folks of the United States 155 

once the free hunting ground of the Indians. 
Again and again the red children watched their 
older brothers and fathers go out to attack the 
men who had ventured into the ''wild west." 
Again and again the soldiers of the United States 
were sent against them. 

It was a dangerous life for the ranchmen, so 
that many of those who undertook to raise cattle 
on the Western Plains, left their families behind 
them. It was not a safe place for women and 
little children. The ranchmen had to live in the 
roughest manner. They had immense herds of 
cattle which were allowed to roam for miles over 
the grassy plains and were rounded up from time 
to time by ''cowboys," as they are called. 

These cowboys were bold and daring fellows 
who carried pistols at their belts, rode half-wild 
horses called mustangs, and were ever ready for 
danger, since at any moment a stampede might 
arise among the cattle. 

Imagine a herd of untrained cattle feeding 
together. An unusual sound is heard which 
fills them with a sudden fright. They toss their 
heads, kick up their heels and dash wildly away. 
This is called a stampede. Now, if the cowboy 
in charge is not quick to use his wits he will be 



156 Little Folks of North America 

knocked down and trampled to death by the 
hoofs of the fleeing cattle. 

On Lake Michigan, one of the Five Great 
Lakes, is the large city of Chicago. The chil- 
dren who live there grow up in the midst of 
noise and bustle, for a great deal of business is 
going on about them all the time. Every day 
long trains of cars come rolling into the stations 
bringing wheat and corn, cattle and hogs. All 
of these have been raised on the plains and 
prairies south and west of Chicago. Many of 
the animals are killed and dressed in the city 
and then sent away to be sold in the eastern 
markets. Others are loaded on big steamers 
waiting at the wharves and sent on a long jour- 
ney through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence 
River and across the ocean to Europe 

Down South. 

The children who live in the southern part 
of the United States have warm weather nearly 
all the year. They need few of the woolen gar- 
ments or the furs which feel so comfortable in 
winter to the people north of them. Their 
clothing is mostly of cotton or linen, and they 
eat less meat and more fruit than their northern 



Little Folks of the United States 157 

brothers. Their homes require little heat, and 
even the cooking is often done in a small build- 
ing separate from the house so that it shall not 
be made uncomfortably warm. 

Let us make a short visit to a cotton planta- 
tion "down south." We shall be made wel- 
come, without a doubt, because the southern 
people are very hospitable. The planter has 
has been told when to expect us and a low, com- 
fortable carriage drawn by a span of beautiful 
horses is at the station when we arrive. A black 
coachman in livery helps us into our seats, 
cracks his whip, and away start the horses at a 
lively trot. We pass forests of yellow pine 
trees, and possibly some tobacco fields. The 
air is fragrant with the odor of flowers and we 
listen to the songs of the blackbirds and mock- 
ing birds. All too soon the horses are turned 
into a driveway shaded by tall trees, at the end 
of which is a large house with broad verandas. 
Our host and his family are awaiting us and 
give us a cordial greeting. 

After we have rested and eaten a delicious 
dinner, the children of the home show us over 
the cotton fields where Negro workmen are 
busy among the long rows of plants. The cot- 



158 Little Folks of North America 

ton would not ripen in a short summer. It 
must have months of heat and moisture. Then 
the flowers will go to seed and long fibers will 
reach out and wrap them in blankets of cotton. 

The cotton is separated from the seeds by the 
work of a machine, called the cotton gin. The 
seeds are ground into meal which is used in 
fattening cattle. Many herds of cattle in the 
south are fed on cotton-seed meal which takes 
the place of the corn given them in other parts 
of the country. 

As we walk about over the fields the children 
of the planter tell us many stories of the Negro 
workmen, what fun-loving creatures they are, 
and how fond they are of good things to eat. 
Water melons please them especially and a 
group of ''darkies" is never so happy as when 
they can sit around a pile of the juicy melons 
and feast to their hearts' content. In many of 
the Negro cabins there is sure to be some one 
who plays the banjo, to whose music big folks 
and little dance merrily when the day's work is 
over. Once the Negroes were the slaves of the 
white planters, but they are now free and sup- 
port themselves like other workmen. 

Our little southern friends ask us if we have 



Little Folks of the United States 159 

ever seen 'possums, as the black people call the 
animals. After everyone on the plantation has 
gone to sleep, then the cunning opossum steals 
from his home in the woods to pay a visit to 
the hen-house. He springs up and seizes one 
after another of the fowls on the roost, whose 
blood he sucks till no more is left in their bodies. 

The Negroes are very fond of a 'possum hunt. 
Soon after dark they arm themselves with clubs 
and axes and go into the woods with a few dogs 
to scent the game, carrying torches to light the 
way. The axes are used to chop down the trees 
where the animals climb to get out of the way 
of the hunters. 

A mother opossum with her little ones is a 
queer sight. The babies are scarcely larger 
than mice and they hang on to their mother's 
body by winding their own tiny tails around 
her larger one. The Negroes go on 'coon hunts 
too, for they can sell the skins, while the meat is 
nearly as delicious as that of the opossum. 
Raccoons have long bushy tails and belong to 
the bear family, though they are much smaller. 
They catch birds in the trees, sucking their 
blood and eating the eggs whenever they find 
them. They like green corn, too, which they 



l6o Little Folks of North America 

steal at night as it is growing in the fields. 
Our little friends go with us to the stables 
and show us their ponies, telling us of the lovely 
morning rides we may have through the coun- 
try if we will stay with them for a few days. 
But we must bid them good-by and travel to 
the busy towns of the east where many of the 
people work in factories and stores and have 
little time to spend in the beautiful out-door 
world. Before we leave the sunny south we 
would like to take a peep at a rice plantation 
in the low marshy country, and to watch the 
men gathering tobacco leaves and hanging them 
to dry in large sheds, but the northern train is 
waiting and we cannot linger. 

Among the Factories. 

The children of a factory town often know 
little of the free, happy days that a farm gives 
to its boys and girls. Long rows of houses 
where the workmen live, and large brick build- 
ings where the machines are noisily running 
from Monday morning till Saturday night — 
these are what a person sees on every hand. 

The country settled by the Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans, and much more east of the Appalachian 



Little Folks of the United States 161 

Mountains has such poor and stony soil that 
it is not good for farms. In such plases we 
find the manufacturing towns where the cotton 
raised in the south and the wool from the sheep 
of the western plains are made into cloth for 
millions of people in the United States. Here 
also are large tanneries where the hides of cattle 
are prepared for harnesses, shoes, bags and many 
other things for which leather is used. In New 
England there are many factories where thou- 
sands of boots and shoes are made for the boys 
and girls of America. 

Fishing. 

Long ago, before the days of the factories, 
many ships sailed away from New England 
ports after whales in the Arctic waters. Now- 
a-days whale-bone is still valuable, but the oil 
is not needed so much as in the old times before 
gas and electricity came into use, so that whal- 
ing is not so common. But many men are still 
busy fishing for herring, halibut and cod, which 
are plentiful in the waters along the northeast 
coast and off the Grand Banks of Newfound- 
land. Many a boy living on the coast goes on 
fishing trips with his father and becomes so fond 



i62 Little Folks of North America 

of the free life of the sea that he decides to be 
a sailor for the rest of his life. 

Many lobsters and clams are also obtained 
along the coast, and farther south are rich beds 
of oysters. In Chesapeake Bay more than one- 
third of all the oysters eaten in the world are 
grown, and most of these are shipped from the 
beautiful city of Baltimore, at the head of the 
bay. Thousands of men and women there are 
busy, day after day, opening the shells and tak- 
ing out the oysters which are then put into tubs 
and cans for shipment. 

In a Lumber Camp. 

When the white men first came to the United 
States, almost all the land between the Atlantic 
Ocean and the Mississippi River was covered 
with forests. Most of these were cut down to 
make clearings for the settlers' homes. Some 
of them, fortunately, were left. Among the 
largest forests still standing to-day are those near 
the Great Lakes, where the lumbermen work 
in much the same way as their Canadian broth- 
ers. When the snow is thick over the ground, 
they leave home with their teams of oxen and 



Little Folks of the United States 163 

horses and go to the distant woods, where they 
build log-houses for themselves and stables for 
the animals. There they live during the cold 
months of the year. Sometimes they stop long 
enough in their work to go bear and deer hunt- 
ing and so get fresh meat which makes a little 
change in their daily fare of bread, beans and 
saltpork. 

The logs are carried to the nearby streams on 
sledges which move easily over the ice and snow. 
When spring comes they are floated along the 
streams and lakes to the saw-mills where they are 
made into lumber. 

Getting Coal. 

Many of the children living in the Appala- 
chian Mountains to-day have their homes near 
coal mines and their fathers are busy digging out 
the coal that brings warmth and comfort during 
the winter to so many people. In some places 
the rocks have been washed away, but in others 
the coal is still so far underground that the 
miners have to work day after day where the 
sunlight never shines. 

Iron is also found in large quantities near the 



164 Little Folks of North America 

coal mines, and trains of freight cars carry both 
these minerals to cities not far away where they 
are used together in making steel. 

Among the Rocky Mountains. 

Great quantities of iron are found in the low 
mountains near Lake Superior, where the miners 
are constantly at work with the help of steam 
engines and powerful machines. 

The richest copper mines of the United 
States are also found near the shores of Lake 
Superior. A pig, we are told, discovered the 
best one of all in a curious way. It had strayed 
from home and fallen into a pit, where it 
scratched and rooted in its struggle to get out. 
In doing this, it laid bare some copper, which 
was discovered by its master when he went to 
look for the missing pig. 

Hunters are fond of visiting the Rocky Moun- 
tains, where they still find the fierce puma, or 
mountain lion, with its sharp teeth and claws, 
and bright eyes. Night is its favorite time to 
roam and it is then that the mountain goat needs 
to beware, for the cat-like puma shows no mercy. 
Children who live in the western part of the 



Little Folks of the United States 165 

United States have sometimes seen a grizzly 
bear brought home by a friend after a hunting 
trip among the Rocky Mountains. It is the 
strongest and most dangerous of all the bear 
family. One blow of its paw is powerful 
enough to kill, yet if it is not disturbed a person 
has little to fear. It does not care for the flesh 
of other animals but is contented with a dinner 
of berries and tender shoots like its brothers, the 
brown and black bears. 

One of the most graceful animals the children 
of the west have ever seen is the bighorn, or 
Rocky Mountain sheep. It browses on the grass 
found on the steep slopes where the hunter has 
hard work to reach it. Its ears are quick to 
hear the slightest sound, when it will toss its head 
and flee from possible danger with long leaps. 

Among the Rocky Mountains are mines of 
silver, gold, and copper which have brought for- 
tunes to many people of the United States. The 
silver mines especially are among the richest in 
the world. The men who work in them gen- 
erally leave their families at home, and go away 
to "rough it" as they say, for a mining town sel- 
dom has many comforts and the boys and girls 



i66 Little Folks of North America 

who do go there to live miss the good schools, 
and many other things to which they have been 
used. 

About fifty years ago gold was discovered in 
the state of California which lies on the shores 
of the Pacific Ocean. The news filled the coun- 
try with excitement. As time passed by the 
gold mines did not prove as rich as the people 
expected, but they discovered that the country 
was valuable in other ways. Trees grew to enor- 
mous size there and the warm, moist climate of 
the western coast was the best possible for rais- 
ing fruit. To-day the children of California 
feast on pears, plums, apricots, grapes, peaches, 
oranges, and still other fruits which grow very 
large and beautiful. There are many wheat 
farms, too, in California where rich harvests re- 
ward the men who own them. 

Beyond the Rocky Mountains and lying be- 
tween them and a lower range called the 
Sierra Nevada, is a high plateau, where the 
rain falls into streams which dry up or form 
lakes before they can make their way to the sea. 

The largest of these is called the Great Salt 
Lake whose water is four times as salty as that 
of the sea. 



Little Folks of the United States 167 

The Colorado Canyon. 

There are still other plateaus southeast of the 
Great Basin where the streams have worn away 
deep valleys called canyons. The largest of 
these rivers is the Colorado, whose canyon is 
so wonderful that travelers in the west always 
wish to visit it. 

In some parts of the canyon the steep clife 
rise on either side for about a mile up into the 
air. As the traveler in the valley below looks 
up he can see the stars shining in broad daylight. 
The rocks at the sides are of different colors — 
gray, brown, red and purple. The best time to 
visit the canyon is at sunrise or sunset. Then 
the light from above falls first upon one color 
and then upon another, making a beautiful sight 
as the shadows change from moment to moment. 

The National Park. 

The United States is a great country^ as its 
people believe, and certainly no others in the 
world can boast of a park so large as theirs. 

When Lewis and Clark had traveled a long 
distance up the Missouri River they reached that 
part of the country which is now called the Yel- 



i68 Little Folks of North America 

lowstone Park. A better name would be ^Won- 
derland" for such it is to the thousands of people 
from all over the world who visit it every year. 

This great reservation is sixty-five miles from 
north to south and fifty-five miles from east to 
west. It contains not one, but many charming 
parks, lovely valleys, sparkling waterfalls, high 
mountains, deep valleys and one beautiful lake, 
called the Yellowstone Lake. 

We can travel in a comfortable parlor car 
to the very entrance of the Wonderland where 
we will first visit the Mammoth Hot Springs 
whose waters are as clear as a mirror. They 
contain lime and iron, and for this reason many 
people drink the water which they take as med- 
icine. 

The largest of the Hot Springs bursts out of 
the ground near the summit of a high hill, from 
which it pours down over the slope and as it 
falls, makes deep basins in the earth below. 

Some of these basins are tiny and others quite 
large. They are of different colors — red, green, 
and yellow, and the edges are worn away into 
the prettiest sort of beadwork by Mother Nature. 

Now let us leave the Hot Springs and visit 
the geysers about fifty miles away. Each has 



Little Folks of the United States 169 

a name of its own. There is the Giantess, which 
from time to time throws up a great quantity 
of water for a short distance. You must be care- 
ful not to venture too near when the Giantess 
wakes up, or you will be soaked with water in an 
instant. 

Another geyser is called Old Faithful, because 
you can depend on his appearance at just such 
a time. He shows off his accomplishments once 
every sixty-five minutes. Old Faithful sends 
up a few little jets of water at first but every 
moment they become larger and stronger, till 
suddenly, with a tremendous roar, the water 
spouts up one hundred and thirty feet in the 
air. By the end of five minutes the water sub- 
sides and only a small stream rises. 

Still another geyser is called the Beehive, on 
account of the shape of its cone. The water 
does not fall to the ground again but moves up 
through the air as fine spray. 

One of the most interesting of all the geysers 
is the Castle. As you near it, the air around 
may be perfectly quiet. Then, all at once, you 
you will hear a loud rumbling noise as though 
quantities of stones were rolling over each other, 
and at the same time the lashing of water is 



lyo Little Folks of North America 

heard under the earth. The noise becomes al- 
most deafening, the earth trembles under your 
feet, and if you are wise you will hasten to some 
spot quite a distance away. Suddenly a column 
of water rises straight up into the air at least 
one hundred and fifty feet. The spray from it 
falls over the ground around like heavy rain 
and those who have not been wise enough to 
flee like yourself are drenched with hot water. 

We must not leave the Wonderland without 
visiting Yellowstone Lake. It is very beautiful 
and stretches its long arms in among the moun- 
tains as though to embrace them. On the west- 
ern shore of this lake you may catch trout if 
you will. Then, if you are hungry, you may 
take a few steps and drop the fish, still on the 
hook, into a boiling spring. Behold! your din- 
ner of delicious trout is ready for your eating. 

Yellowstone River flows out of this wonderful 
lake and at first moves smoothly and quietly. 
Then, as it is about to make its way through a 
mountain-pass, it makes leaps and bounds in the 
form of cascades and waterfalls, wearing the 
earth into a deep canyon, which is as full of 
interest as that of the Colorado. 

In your visit to the Rocky Mountains you 



Little Folks of the United States 171 

will, no doubt, wish to climb Pikes Peak. It 
is named for Major Pike, who tried to climb to 
the summit but failed. 

^'Only a bird could succeed," he afterwards 
said. Now-a-days, however, hundreds of trav- 
elers go every year to the top of Pikes Peak. 

Niagara Falls. 

Nearly every one who travels over the United 
States takes a trip up the beautiful Hudson 
River, and goes to the top of Mount Washing- 
ton in New England, by using the railroad built 
up the side of the mountain, and over which the 
train moves slowly with the help of a double 
engine. 

Perhaps the most wonderful and interesting 
of all sights are the Falls of Niagara, between 
Canada and the United States. Out of Lake 
Erie, one of the Five Great Lakes, flows the 
Niagara River, which soon reaches a clifif over 
which it pours its whole body of water with a 
sound like thunder. If you stand near the foot 
of the falls you must wear waterproof garments, 
or the dashing spray will drench you in a few 
moments. The longer you look, the more won- 
derful the sight appears and before long you 



172 Little Folks of North America 

feel as though you would like to stay there for- 
ever, watching those mighty waters falling, ever 
falling, and never resting in their course for a 
single moment. 

In winter the spray covers every bush and 
tree near the foot of the Falls and as it freezes 
almost instantly, strange forms are built up on 
the twigs and branches. Then in the bright sun- 
light the world around seems like fairyland. 
Masses of ice are carried along with the water 
of the cataract and become piled up below, mak- 
ing a bridge of ice across the river. 

The children who visit Niagara Falls are sure 
to wish to enter the deep cave in the clifif directly 
under the falling waters. No matter how care- 
fully they may enter, they will be drenched by 
the spray unless they are clad in waterproof 
from head to foot. They have a strange feeling 
while they are in the cave. The loud rumbling 
of the water and the trembling of the earth fill 
them with a sort of fear and they are glad when 
they are once more out in the sunlight and at 
a safe distance from the mighty cataract. 



Little Folks of the United States 173 

A Peep at Big Cities. 

There are many large and beautiful cities in 
the United States, each of which is particularly 
dear to the children who live there. Sometimes 
they think of their brothers and sisters of a hun- 
dred years ago who warmed themselves in win- 
ter before burning logs in big fireplaces, who 
traveled in lumbering stage-coaches and were 
lighted to bed by home-made candles or smoky 
whale-oil lamps. Many of the children of to- 
day have steam-heated houses, lighted by gas 
or electricity; they travel short distances in elec- 
tric cars or automobiles, and longer ones in 
comfortable trains moved by steam-engines; or 
perhaps they take water trips in roomy steam- 
boats where they can move about as freely as in 
their own homes. They talk with distant 
friends by merely taking down the receiver of 
a telephone. Steam, gas, electricity — all these 
conveniences are found not only in the cities of 
the United States, but on the distant prairies for 
the use of farmers and their families. 

Washington is the capital of the United States. 
It is the place where the business of the country 
is attended to and the laws are made for the 



174 Little Folks of North America 

protection of the people. It is a wonderfully 
clean and beautiful city, and has many grand 
buildings which may well be called palaces. 
The White House, the home of the president, 
is the copy of a palace in Ireland which was 
built for the Duke of Leinster. The National 
Library is very large and some people think the 
building devoted to it is the most beautiful in 
the world. The Rogers Bronze Door which 
opens into the Capital is a great work of art. 
The most important things in the life of Co- 
lumbus and the discovery of America are pic- 
tured in the bronze. This one door cost thirty 
thousand dollars. 

There are large art galleries in Washington 
and many other buildings where you can pass 
day after day and constantly find new things 
to interest you. But before you leave the city 
you must be sure to visit the beautiful marble 
monument built in honor of George Wash- 
ington. 

At the mouth of the Hudson River is the great 
city of New York, next to the largest in the 
whole world. It contains many beautiful 
homes, fine churches, lovely parks, and business 
buildings many stories in height which, like 



Little Folks of the United States 175 

others in Chicago, are called "sky scrapers." 
On an island in New York Harbor stands the 
famous Statue of Liberty given to this country 
by France. Persons who wish to do so may 
climb up into the head of this statue which is in 
the form of a beautiful woman with a torch in 
her uplifted hand. The crown on the head is 
composed of windows from which there is a fine 
view of New York Harbor. 

Another island in the harbor is called Ellis 
Island, where most of the emigrants who have 
left their homes in other countries, land when 
they reach the United States. Irish and Poles, 
Italians and Russians, men with children cling- 
ing to their sides, and women with arms clasped 
around tiny babies, all dressed in the fashion 
of their old homes, step from the big ships and 
take their first breath of the free air of America 
almost under the shadow of the Statue of Lib- 
erty. 

New York is the greatest manufacturing cen- 
tre in the United States. Clothing, books, cigars, 
furniture, leather goods and many other things 
are made here for the people of this and other 
countries. 

The good old city of Boston is on the eastern 



176 Little Folks of North America 

coast of Massachusetts. It has a fine harbor 
like its sister city in New York, and many large 
ships from all over the world are seen at its 
wharves. 

Ten years after the Pilgrims landed at 
Plymouth the Puritans founded Boston. It is 
a quaint city with narrow, winding streets, much 
unlike Chicago and New York and many other 
cities built later on. The State House on Bea- 
con Hill has a gilded dome which can be seen 
in the sunlight for miles around. This is often 
called "Boston's breastpin." There are many 
old buildings in the city, around which are 
woven interesting stories of the early days of 
this country. Here stands Faneuil Hall where 
many stirring words were spoken. For this 
reason it is spoken of as the Cradle of Liberty. 
Then there is the Old South Church a "meeting 
house" of the olden times from which the Boston 
Tea Party started out to throw the tea which 
had come from England into Boston Harbor. 
The cemeteries, in which some of the greatest 
men of the early days of the country were bur- 
ied, are still kept with the greatest care and are 
visited by travelers throughout the year. Bos- 



Little Folks of the United States 177 

ton is a manufacturing city and is the largest 
market in the world for boots, shoes and leather 
goods. 

In the state of Pennsylvania, settled as you 
know by the Quakers, is the city of Philadel- 
phia. This name was chosen for it by Wil- 
liam Penn because of its meaning, '^brotherly 
love," and the peaceful spirit of that great man 
is felt even now in the quiet streets, lined with 
quaint old houses. 

Philadelphia was once the largest city in the 
United States. It is still a very busy one. 
Quantities of coal from the mines not far away 
are sent to this city and from there shipped to 
other places. Iron and steel goods are made 
in its factories and many of its people are busy 
in the cotton mills. On the river front near by 
there are large shipyards where ships have been 
built for the United States navy. 

The children of Philadelphia are especially 
proud of Independence Hall where the famous 
Declaration of Independence was signed and 
the bell rang out to tell of what brave men had 
dared to do. This ''Liberty Bell" has been care- 
fully preserved and may be seen even now after 
all these years. 



178 Little Folks of North America 

There are many other large and beautiful 
cities in the country. One of these, San Fran- 
cisco, lies on the far western coast, on the borders 
of the Pacific Ocean. It has a deep harbor, into 
which come sailing many ships from China and 
Japan, bringing cargoes of silk and tea. Many 
Chinamen are to be seen on the streets of the 
city, and pretty Japanese children with black 
eyes and soft yellow skins play in the parks with 
the little Americans. More wheat is exported 
from the city of San Francisco than from any 
other in the United States. 

There is so much to tell of this great country 
and of the children who live here in happy 
homes, that it is hard to stop, but we must leave 
it for the present and travel south to Mexico. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Little Folks of Mexico 

LONG ago, when we ended our visit in 
Canada and Newfoundland, we left be- 
hind us the polar bears and the icebergs 
and all those things which are to be found in the 
cold parts of the earth. Then we traveled over 
the United States with its temperate climate, 
where neither heat nor cold are severe. Still 
moving south," we come to Mexico. 

At the time Columbus discovered America 
Mexico was the home of gentle little Indian 
children. Their skins were not as red as the 
rest of their people in North America, but were 
of a brownish tint. Their lips were rather 
thick, and their voices were soft. They called 
themselves Aztecs. 

These children went to school and learned 
lessons while the other Indians of North Amer- 
ica were living like savages. They were taught 
music and painting and the history of the Aztecs. 

179 



i8o Little Folks of North America 

They studied strange-looking books written in 
pictures, each of which stood for a certain word. 

As they grew up they were taught to worship 
many gods, some of whom they believed to be 
very cruel. They feared these gods and offered 
sacrifices of human beings to them. It was a 
dreadful belief indeed that could make people 
do this. 

A great king named Montezuma ruled over 
the whole country. He lived in a magnificent 
palace far up on a lofty plateau in the middle 
of the country, with mountains on either hand, 
as though to guard him. He wore rich gar- 
ments which he changed many times a day. He 
ate the choicest food from dishes' of silver and 
gold. Hundreds of people waited upon him, 
ever ready to do his bidding. 

Montezuma made the city where he lived 
very beautiful. There were gardens filled with 
flowers, and ponds stocked with different kinds 
of fish. There were menageries where birds of 
brilliant plumage were cared for so tenderly 
that they could not miss their free homes of 
the forest, and there were wild animals of both 
hot lands and cold. Altogether, the city was 
the wonder of all who visited it. 



Little Folks of Mexico 181 

There came a time, however, when all this 
was changed. A few years after Columbus dis- 
covered the New World a Spaniard named 
Fernando Cortez sailed along the shores of 
Mexico with his fleet of ships. He entered a 
harbor and landed. The simple Indians who 
stood watching, bent low before the strange 
white men, for they thought them gods from 
heaven who had come to visit them, and they 
gladly told all they knew about the country. 
Gold and silver? Yes, there was plenty to be 
had in Mexico. Furthermore, they described 
the wonderful city on the plateau above, where 
the great Montezuma held his court. 

Cortez listened with great interest. He was a 
brave man ; he was also cruel and greedy. His 
eyes flashed as he thought of all the riches to be 
gained if he could conquer the natives. But 
he used only soft words and begged to be shown 
the way to the wonderful city among the moun- 
tains above him. He declared that he wished 
to pay respect to the ruler of the country. 

The Indian guides led the way while Cortez 
and his train of knights followed. 

On, yet ever upwards they climbed, soon leav- 
ing the hot, damp lowlands behind them. The 



i82 Little Folks of North America 

air became cooler and fresher, and the fruits 
that grow only where the heat is great, were 
soon passed. On, yet ever upwards ! The path- 
way now became steep and rough, but it brought 
the Spaniards at last out upon a broad plain 
on which stood the city described by the natives 
of the lowlands. The king came to meet the 
strangers in all his glory. He lavished gifts 
upon them, too — gold and silver and precious 
stones, — all those things which he thought val- 
uable in the eyes of his guests. He entertained 
them royally and gave feasts in their honor. 

While the cruel Spaniard was looking at the 
rich gifts, he was planning how to conquer Mon- 
tezuma and his subjects and get all the wealth 
of the country into his hands. 

It was not long before this was done. Mon- 
tezuma's reign was brought to an end; the beau- 
tiful buildings of the city of which he was so 
proud were destroyed, and the Indians of Mex- 
ico became the slaves of the Spaniards. 

For nearly three hundred years Spain ruled 
over the country, during which time many boys 
and girls crossed the ocean to make their home 
in Mexico. 

Some of the Spaniards married gentle Indian 



Little Folks of Mexico 183 

maidens and their children were called half- 
castes, to show that they were half-white and 
half-Indian. For this reason there are three 
kinds of children who call Mexico home, — 
first, Creoles, whose people came in the begin- 
ning from Europe; second, the Indians, and 
third, the half-castes. Many of these last are 
so fair in the skin that one would scarcely think 
they could have any Indian blood whatever. 

Although the white people came in the be- 
ginning from Spain, they have lived so long in 
Mexico that they now have a name of their 
own. Many of their children are very beauti- 
ful. They have soft black eyes which grow 
sharp and piercing as they become excited. 
They are usually very gentle, but if they are 
crossed they show a quick, unruly temper. They 
are not fond of work, but like to be waited on 
by their servants. Many of them are rich and 
live in grand houses built around courtyards 
whose fountains play all day long. The air 
of these courtyards is filled with the odor of 
lovely flowers growing there. 

The mothers of the little Creoles dress in 
dainty lawns and laces, following the latest 
fashions from Paris. They are proud of their 



184 Little Folks of North America 

tiny hands and feet and are careful to do no 
hard work that may spoil their shape. They 
embroider, and do other fancywork, and they 
sing and play. They are very loving, and bring 
up their little ones to be polite and respectful. 
They, as well as their husbands, are ever ready 
to show kindness to visitors and strangers. 

The Indian children of Mexico lead a very 
different life from their Creole brothers and 
sisters. After the Aztecs were conquered by the 
Spaniards they lived the life of slaves for such 
a long time that it became a habit with them 
to look up to the white men as higher beings, 
so that to this day they are as humble as slaves 
although they are now free and the country is 
a republic. 

The little Indians have few clothes, but that 
does not matter, for they do not need more in 
the warm climate in which they live. As for 
shoes, their people in the good old times before 
the coming of the Spaniards wore none, so why 
should they? Sandals are certainly far more 
comfortable, besides being the best foot-gear pos- 
sible for mountain climbing. 

In the warm lowlands the Indians live in 
simple huts of wood or bamboo, with thatched 



Little Folks of Mexico 185 

roofs of palm leaves. Farther up on the table- 
land where it is cooler the homes are still small 
and easily made, but they are of unburnt brick, 
called adobe. The roofs are flat and covered 
with clay. No matter how poor the family may 
be the home is not complete unless it has an oven 
large enough for a person to sit in, also made 
of adobe. Stones are piled in this oven and 
heated. Then water is poured over them, which 
makes a heavy steam rise, in which the people 
take their baths. 

^'It is good," the little Indians would tell 
you. ''So good, that as the sweat bursts out 
over your body, it will take out all the badness, 
and make you feel well and strong." 

The poorest children need not be hungry, for 
fruits and vegetables are cheap and plentiful. 
Besides these, there are the tortillas the Indian 
mothers make every day for their families. 

Outside of every house there is sure to be 
a field of maize, big enough to furnish the fam- 
ily with all they need during the year. When 
the maize is ripe it is gathered and put away 
for future use. Every evening the women of 
the household take some of it and place it in 
jars of hot water. They add a little lime to 



i86 Little Folks of North America 

soften it. When morning comes, they take it 
from the jar, and spreading it on a stone bench, 
make it into paste with a stone roller. Now 
it is put into a dish, and enough water added 
to make it into a batter thick enough for pan- 
cakes. One by one these are baked before a 
fire of charcoal. Hours are spent each day pre- 
paring tortillas. Even the rich people of Mex- 
ico are fond of tortillas, and hire special cooks 
to prepare them for the table. 

The Indian children are very strong. The 
boys practice running and learn to carry heavy 
loads on their backs with ease. Many of the 
men are porters, or work in the silver mines 
carrying out the ore ; some of them, however, 
are busy on the farms. As the boys grow up, 
they generally follow the same trade as their 
fathers. The pay is small and the work is hard, 
but it seems easier for the Indians to keep to 
the same old habits that were formed under their 
masters, the Spaniards. 

Wherever you may travel in Mexico, you 
will meet Indian porters with heavy loads on 
their backs, moving along at a steady trot. 
Hour after hour they will keep this up, carrying 
seventy-five or a hundred pounds at a time. 



Little Folks of Mexico 187 

The Indian farmers may be fifty or even a hun- 
dred miles from a market for their goods, but 
it does not seem to trouble them that the vege- 
tables they wish to sell must be carried all the 
way on their backs. 

Besides the Indian and Creole children are 
the half-castes whose skins are darker than those 
of their white brothers and sisters, though many 
of them have rosy cheeks. They are pleasant 
and good-natured, but are apt to be sly and 
lazy. 

The fathers of the little half-castes are gen- 
erally farmers or mule drivers. Their older 
brothers and sisters are often servants in the 
homes of the wealthy Creoles, where they learn 
the ways and fashions of the white people and 
try to copy them. 

Most of the boys and girls of Mexico go to 
school which they must reach by seven o'clock 
in the morning, and where they spend about ten 
hours of each day. The seats and desks are not 
comfortably arranged as they are in most places 
in the United States. Those children who can 
have chairs are fortunate, for many of them sit 
on benches and even on the floor. They study 
aloud, so you can imagine what a chattering 



i88 Little Folks of North America 

there is. It is hard to understand how they 
manage to get their lessons. 

There are many holidays in Mexico, when the 
tiresome schools are closed and both big folks 
and little give themselves up to feasting and 
dancing. 

One of these, Good Friday, is celebrated in 
a curious way. All day long men go through 
the streets carrying figures of the traitor Judas 
hanging from long poles. They stop from time 
to time as children come running up to them 
to buy a Judas. Now comes the sport, for the 
figures can be blown up. Bits of lighted punk 
are held against the figures, when they suddenly 
burst like fire-crackers and make noise enough 
to deafen the ears of the passer-by. It is no 
wonder the children save up their money for 
Good Friday so that they can buy numbers of 
Judases. 

The evening is the best part of the whole day, 
for then immense Judases are hung up on lines 
across the streets and crowds of people gather 
to watch them while they are blown up and ex- 
ploded. At the same time the city bells ring 
out the glad news that Judas has been de- 
stroyed. The strangest part of all is the crack- 



Little Folks of Mexico 189 

ling noise that now follows, representing the 
breaking of the bones of the two thieves who 
were crucified at the same time as Jesus. The 
Mexicans certainly have a queer way of cele- 
brating Good Friday. 

On the Coast. 

Although a part of Mexico lies in or near 
the torrid zone, all kinds of climate are to be 
found in the country. Let us see how this is. 
Along the shores of the Pacific on the west, and 
of the Gulf of Mexico on the east the land is 
low and the air is hot and moist, and for this 
reason there is much illness there. The chil- 
dren of these lowlands know only two seasons, 
the wet and the dry. Many of them live on 
ranches where herds of cattle feed on the high, 
coarse grass. Here and there small streams flow 
through the land from the mountains above, and 
there are lakes shaded by tall palm trees. These 
are the places where the tropical fruits of Mex- 
ico grow, — vanilla, spices, bananas, cacao, and 
oranges. Mangoes, cocoanuts, and alligator 
pears, besides many others seldom sent to tem- 
perate lands, also grow here in plenty. 

The lowlands are not perfectly flat, but slope 



igo Little Folks of North America 

upwards toward high hills where the air is clear 
and much cooler. The children here can gather 
yellow oranges and clutches of bananas, like 
their brothers and sisters of the lowlands, while 
they may also pick peaches and apples in their 
orchards. Flowers and trailing vines grow 
everywhere about them. The palms of the hot 
lands wave in the breeze on one side, while the 
roses and honeysuckles of the temperate zone 
bloom on the other. It is a strange and beauti- 
ful country. 

Slowly we bid good-by to the little homes 
nestled among the trees, and with the help of 
a big double-engine we climb up the steep slopes 
to still higher lands. The trees are of a differ- 
ent kind now, for strong pines and oaks are 
about us everywhere. 

The long climbing comes to an end at last. 
The double-engine has done its work and is used 
no longer, for we move out upon the plateau of 
Mexico where cactus plants spread over many 
acres, and wheat and barley fields greet us like 
old friends from the United States. 




From Copyrighted Stereograph 

by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



A Mexican Village. 



Little Folks of Mexico 191 

Vera Cruz. 

When Cortez arrived on the coast of Mexico 
his ships entered the only good harbor on the 
eastern side of the country. He and his men 
landed at a place to which the Spaniards gave 
the name of Vera Cruz, or ^'True Cross." 
Afterwards they built a city there, which to-day 
is one of the two principal ports of Mexico. 
Every year many ships are loaded at the 
wharves of Vera Cruz with limes and ham- 
mocks, silver and copper, which they carry to 
the United States and other countries. 

Vera Cruz is a beautiful city. Tall palm 
trees shade many a lovely home, in whose gar- 
dens children are playing throughout the year. 
Before it stretches the Gulf of Mexico, while 
at its back the lofty volcano Orizaba reaches 
far up toward the sky. The people of Vera 
Cruz work hard to make it a clean city, and 
they are helped by the vultures — big, ugly- 
looking birds who are ever ready to swoop down 
into the streets and house-yards to devour any 
decaying matter to be found. Bits of fruit and 
vegetables, scraps of meat, and dead animals 
whether big or little, are greedily eaten. 



192 Little Folks of North America 

Although the city is kept clean from one end 
to the other, it is not a healthy place for a home. 
Fever is in hiding everywhere and visitors find 
it wise to make only a short stay in the place. 

Getting Vanilla. 

Few people live in the low country around 
Vera Cruz except Indians and half-castes. 
Here and there on the banks of the streams you 
may find a group of palm-thatched huts with 
Indian children running in and out among the 
trees. The weather is so warm here through- 
out the year that they wear scarcely any cloth- 
ing and many times in the day they plunge into 
the river to cool themselves. Sometimes the 
boys take long tramps into the forests on the 
slopes above them in search of pods filled with 
vanilla beans. They must seek only dark and 
moist places, for vanilla plants do not grow well 
in the sunlight. Swarms of mosquitoes buzz 
about the boys' bare legs, and snakes and lizards 
often cross their path. Many times they are 
obliged to crawl between tangled vines and push 
thick underbrush aside. But they care little for 
these things. Their minds are set on finding 
enough vanilla plants to yield them a goodly 



Little Folks of Mexico 193 

load of pods, which they will carry home and 
dry with the greatest care before sending them 
to market. 

Acapulco. 

On the western coast of Mexico is the city of 
Acapulco, with its deep and beautiful harbor. 
Many large steamers are loaded with cattle and 
hides, timber and fruit at its wharves. 

The Mexican Farms. 

Many of the children of Mexico have their 
homes on tobacco and sugar plantations which 
are found on the slopes rising from the low- 
lands along the shore. Still other children live 
on the plateau of Mexico on large farms which 
stretch over miles of country and seem like small 
towns in themselves. The men on these farms 
are busy in various ways. Some of them have 
the care of large fields of wheat or barley. 
Others tend herds of cattle or flocks of sheep. 

The owner of such a farm is usually a rich 
man who lives with his family in a large stone 
house surrounded by high walls. There is a 
courtyard where beautiful trees and plants are 
growing and fountains are playing. The wife 



194 Little Folks of North America 

and children of the owner wear dainty garments 
and are waited upon by many servants. They 
have the choicest food, — fruits of many kinds, 
chicken cooked in dififerent ways, tortillas of 
course, besides all sorts of delicacies prepared 
by excellent cooks. 

The workmen have very different homes. 
They live in small huts of one or tw^o rooms, 
and built of mud or adobe. Inside are rough 
stone fireplaces, and a few mats are spread on 
the floor. Here the children and their parents 
sit while they eat their simple meals of tortillas 
and black beans, and here they stretch them- 
selves at night for sleep. They are quite happy, 
however. Outdoors are the birds, the flowers, 
and the beautiful sunshine. They need few 
clothes and they do not go hungry. 

There are usually large dairies on these farms 
where women are busy making the rich milk 
into butter and cheese. Thousands of pounds 
are often sent to market from one such farm 
during the year. 

You have probably seen century plants in the 
hot-houses you have visited, and have been told 
that they belong to the aloe family. When the 
Spaniards first came to Mexico they saw the 



Little Folks of Mexico 195 

Indians making paper from the pulp of the 
leaves of the aloe plant and twine from its 
fibers. The sharp thorns on the edges of the 
leaves furnished needles for the Indian women, 
and the sap of the aloe was made into pulque, 
the favorite drink of the natives. They also 
made hammocks from the fibers and thatched 
the roofs of their huts with the big leaves, lap- 
ping one over the other like shingles. In fact, 
the Indians made so many uses of the aloe plant 
that the Spaniards thought it worth while to 
raise it in large quantities for themselves. 

The aloe has thick, pointed leaves sometimes 
ten feet long. It blossoms about once in ten 
years, when it sends a flower stalk twenty or 
thirty feet up into the air. At the very top an 
immense cluster of greenish-yellow blossoms ap- 
pears. All the strength of the plant goes into 
these blossoms for, as they open, the leaves 
wither and die. 

The Indians have learned to tell when the 
plant is getting ready to send up its giant flower- 
stalk. Just before it appears they cut out the 
heart with a sharp knife, leaving only the thick, 
outside rind of the stem. The sweet sap that 
should have gone to feed the flower-stalk be- 



196 Little Folks of North America 

gins to ooze into the hollow and continues to do 
so for several weeks. The Indians, who have 
discovered the right time to cut into the plant 
to prevent its flowering, have also learned that 
the sap can be used in making the drink which 
they call pulque. 

The city of Mexico is a beautiful one, with 
high stone walls around it, a large square in the 
centre, and broad streets running at right angles 
to each other. Nearly all the houses are built of 
stone, with flat roofs on which the people sit in 
the evening to enjoy the cool breezes and watch 
the stars twinkling merrily in the heavens above. 

The children of the big stone houses can play 
in inner courtyards among flowering plants and 
fountains. But when they leave their homes to 
go out into the city they must pass through heavy 
doors studded with nails and heavily chained. 
The house windows that face the street have 
iron bars across them, so that at first these houses 
seem like fortresses. But when one passes to 
the back part of such a building and looks out 
through the windows there upon the pretty 
courtyard with its fountains and flower-beds, or 
takes a comfortable chair on one of the bal- 
conies, with its gilded balustrades covered with 



Little Folks of Mexico 197 

trailing vines, he begins to feel as though he 
were in a beautiful palace. 

The great square in the middle of the city is 
beautiful with trees and flowers, statues, and 
walks paved with snowy marble. In the long- 
ago a temple stood here where hundreds of peo- 
ple were sacrificed to the gods in whom the 
Aztecs believed. On one side of the square 
stands the house of the president, and on an- 
other there is a grand cathedral where the Mex- 
icans and their children go to worship. The 
cathedral doors are always open so that any day 
you may go inside and find people kneeling 
there. Rich and poor, grand ladies in delicate 
muslins and jewels, and the poorest Indians with 
their packs of fruit or coops filled with chickens 
still on their backs, kneel in prayer side by side. 

Many of the children who have been to the 
cathedral to worship, stop as they leave it be- 
fore the flower-decked stands under the trees, 
where women are busy selling cool drinks and 
sweetmeats. Or perhaps they are more inter- 
ested in the Indians wandering about with cages 
of humming-birds and parrots, and they beg 
their parents or older friends who are with them 
to buy one of the birds to carry home. 



198 Little Folks of North America 

As the children go on their way they pass 
many a horseman riding through the streets with 
broad hat shading his face, and with leggings 
trimmed with buttons and silver braid. Silver 
spurs shine brightly at his side in the sunlight, 
as also do the gorgeous trappings of his horse. 

There are all sorts of people to be seen on 
the streets of Mexico. There are Indians with 
packs of all sorts on their backs. There are 
girls in gaily striped skirts selling fruit. There 
are water-carriers in leather aprons with large 
earthen jars on their backs and smaller ones 
hanging down in front; there are bird-sellers 
with flower-trimmed cages ; there are the In- 
dian policeman who carry lanterns at night, 
which they place in the middle of the street 
while they nap in the doorways close by. These 
naps must be very short, however, because every 
fifteen minutes it is the business of the police- 
men to blow shrill whistles, and at every hour 
to call the time. 

The Big Market. 

The boys and girls of the city often visit the 
big market which is only a short distance from 
the cathedral. It is surrounded by high stone 



Little Folks of Mexico 199 

walls and on every side there is a gateway 
through which the people are constantly passing. 

The sides of the market are lined with shops 
where people are busy selling all sorts of goods. 
There are the stalls of butchers where only 
meats are to be seen. There are stands of fruit 
that fill the air with sweet odors. There are 
vegetables of many kinds, furniture, and dress- 
goods of all colors. There are shops where 
fried meats are sold to hungry people in need 
of a lunch. There are great piles of cocoanuts 
and bananas heaped upon the ground. There 
are fish from both lake and ocean. Strangest 
of all are the cakes made out of marshflies. 
These flies are found in great numbers along 
the muddy banks of the Mexican lakes. There 
they lay their eggs among the flags and rushes 
and are killed by the Indians and made into a 
paste. 

The middle of the market is filled with In- 
dians who shade themselves and their wares 
from the hot sun by large squares of matting 
perched on poles. Here is one man with coops 
filled with chickens, and another with a stack 
of earthen dishes made at home. Just beyond 
him is a woman with a baby on her back. She 



200 Little Folks of North America 

is standing* by the side of a patient donkey with 
panniers filled with melons or peaches, hanging 
from its sides, and a happy little two-year old 
child on its back. Some of the people who are 
busy selling their wares have come many miles 
and left their homes before sunrise. They have 
brought their families along with them, so that 
half-naked children and babies of all ages are 
to be seen everywhere. Some of them are 
munching fruit, others playing hide-and-seek 
among the crowds, while many a tiny baby is 
nodding itself to sleep on its mother's back or 
crying with all its might for a little attention. 

The Museums. 

The children of the city are fond of visiting 
the museums, for there they can see many of 
the wonderful things made by the Aztecs in 
the time of their great ruler, Montezuma. 

First of all they stop before a large bed of 
flowers in the court, in the center of which is 
the "sacrificial stone" where, in the old days be- 
fore the coming of the white men, people were 
offered up to the gods in whom they believed. 
Near by are the hideous statues of two of these 
gods. They are not pleasant to look at, so the 



Little Folks of Mexico 201 

visitors pass quickly into the building where 
they can see Aztec vases ornamented with 
strange carving, masks of volcanic glass, the 
wonderful feather shields of Montezuma, books 
filled with picture-writing, and images made of 
wax and representing all kinds of life in Mexico. 
There is the Indian with his pack, the charcoal- 
seller with his 'donkey beside him laden with 
coal, the flower-vender with bouquets of flowers 
in her hands. 

Children are never tired of looking at these 
wax figures, but however long they may stay, 
they do not like to leave the museum without 
at least a peep at the feather pictures made in 
the time of Montezuma. 

These pictures are entirely of birds' delicate 
feathers, laid over each other so carefully that 
if you were to examine them ever so closely you 
would not be able to tell how the work was done. 
The pictures are as wonderful in their way as 
fine paintings. Only few Indians know the 
secret of making them, which is guarded care- 
fully and handed down from father to son. 



202 Little Folks of North America 

The Floating Gardens. 

Most of the vegetables raised for the people 
of Mexico are brought in the early morning 
from the floating gardens a short distance from 
the city, where there are some lakes. A kind of 
water-plant grows in these lakes very fast and 
mats together, making marshy beds. ' 

Long ago, in the time of Montezuma, the 
Aztec farmers learned to make gardens out of 
these floating masses of weeds. They cut out 
large squares which they covered with mud 
drawn up from the bottom of the lake. The soil 
was rich and moist so that no place in the world 
could be better for plants. Flower and vege- 
table seeds were sown and in a short time beau- 
tiful gardens were growing. 

From that day to this Indians have been busy 
tending these floating gardens. They pass from 
one to another in canoes, gathering vegetables 
and flowers for the city market. One boat will 
be filled with lettuce, another with luscious red 
tomatoes, while still another will be loaded with 
bright-colored flowers. It is a pretty sight to 
see them as they move slowly along through the 
Viga Canal that leads from the lakes to the city. 



Little Folks of Mexico 203 

Again and again the Indians paddling along 
with their loads are passed by pleasure boats 
filled with young people, who make the air re- 
sound with the odd sweet songs of the country. 

Volcanoes. 

South of the city of Mexico there is a range 
of hills, and beyond these is a chain of volcanoes, 
two of which bear the names of Popocatapetl 
and Iztacsihuatl. It is much easier, however, 
to think of them as '^Smoking Mountain" and 
'^The Woman in White," for such are the mean- 
ings of these long words. Both these volcanoes 
wear garments of snow and they look so peace- 
ful that the children of Mexico are not troubled 
with the thought of what might happen if they 
should awake in fiery anger some day and send 
out streams of red-hot lava over the country be- 
low. 

The slopes of Popocatapetl are dotted with 
the huts of Indians who earn their living by 
getting loads of sulphur from the crater of the 
volcano. 

The highest mountain peak in Mexico is 
Orizaba, or the ''Star of the Sea." As you sail 
towards the eastern shore of Mexico and when 



204 Little Folks of North America 

you are still so far away that no other part is in 
sight, the lofty volcano Orizaba appears before 
you with its summit in the clouds. The Indians 
chose a fitting name for it, because it certainly 
seems to rise out of the sea. 

Among the Mines. 

When the Spaniards became the rulers of 
Mexico they found themselves the owners of the 
richest silver mines in the world. A great part 
of the silver used to-day came from those mines. 
Although immense fortunes have been made in 
the country for hundreds of years, yet the mines 
are still rich in the precious ore. They are 
owned by white men, but the work of getting the 
silver is done mostly by Indians. Mules are 
sometimes used to carry the ore from the dark 
caverns under-ground to the bright world out- 
side, but much of even this work is done by the 
Indians themselves, who climb up the steep sides 
of the mines with heavy loads on their backs day 
after day. 

When the silver is found it is generally mixed 
with sulphur, but sometimes, a lump of the pure 
metal is turned up. One of these lumps 



Little Folks of Mexico 205 

weighed four hundred and twenty-five pounds, 
and was worth eight thousand dollars. 

The miners sometimes try to steal the silver 
by hiding it in their hair, their ears, or between 
their toes. They are carefully watched for this 
reason, so they seldom succeed. 

Copper is also found in the mines of Mexico 
and some of it is sent to the United States. 

The children of Mexico never need to leave 
their country for the sake of a change, for by 
traveling a few miles, they can enjoy either cold 
weather or hot; they can see the trees and plants, 
can hear the birds, and can pick the flowers be- 
longing to lands that stretch from the frozen 
north to the burning regions of the equator. 



CHAPTER IX 

Little Folks of Central America 

NOW let us make a short visit to the chil- 
dren of Central America. Perhaps it 
would not be well for us to stay with 
them long unless they live in the high valleys 
of the mountain country along the western shore, 
for the lowlands are hotter and even more moist 
than those of Mexico. Fever lies in waiting for 
strangers in the lowlands; swarms of mosquitoes 
are ready to attack us on every hand, centipedes 
and scorpions are hidden in the grass at our feet, 
so that we are quite willing to hasten towards 
the hill country as quickly as possible. Even 
here we feel in danger, for the high valleys we 
enter lie hidden under the very shadow of a row 
of volcanoes that stretch from north to south 
through the land. Many of these are quite 
wide-awake and show this in various ways, some 
by the clouds of smoke that rise out of their 

206 



Little Folks of Central America 207 

craters, or by the odor of sulphur that reaches 
our noses, or perhaps by the shaking of the 
earth beneath our feet. 

One of the highest of these peaks is called 
Agua which, from time to time, sends out jets of 
boiling water. 

The children of Central America are quite 
used to earthquakes, which they feel many times 
during the year. At any moment, in the midst 
of their play, at dinner time, or during a walk 
through the streets, the ground may suddenly 
tremble under their feet, they become dizzy and 
light-headed, and perhaps there is a rumbling 
sound in the air around them. If they are away 
from home, they hurry back to seek safety beside 
their mothers. 

A minute afterwards the danger may pass by 
and the play or dinner or walk goes on as before. 
Yet there are ruined cities in the country to 
tell the story that there have been terrible earth- 
quakes in past times when homes were destroyed, 
and men, women and children lost their lives 
before they had time to flee for safety. 

The children of Central America are much 
like their brothers and sisters of Mexico. There 
are the Indians who are little troubled by the 



208 Little Folks of North America 

heat and mosquitoes, there are the white boys 
and girls whose people came from Spain, and 
there are the little half-castes. 

Some of these children live near dense forests 
where their fathers, are busy cutting down valu- 
able mahogany and logwood trees, which are 
shipped to other lands to be made into elegant 
furniture. It is so hot in many of these forests 
that the men do their work at night with flaming 
torches to give them light. 
- It is a strange sight. All around is heavy 
darkness except in the cleared space among the 
trees where the torch-lights show patient oxen 
plodding along with their heavy loads, and 
their half-naked drivers snapping their whips 
and calling in loud voices to the animals and 
each other. Through it all comes the sound of 
the whip and axe, and the snapping of the big 
trunks as they fall to the ground. 

Logwood, from which a valuable dye is ob- 
tained, is the name of another valuable tree 
found in the forests of Central America, as also 
is the lignum vitae, or wood of life. From both 
logwood and lignum vitae are extracted med- 
icines which physicians often use. 



Little Folks of Central America 209 

In Central America people need to be care- 
ful when they are wandering through the thick 
grass or along the edge of a forest, for poisonous 
snakes lurk about and the bites of some of them 
may cause much pain and suffering. 

Sometimes the boys bring home winged squir- 
rels which they have caught while flying from 
tree to tree, but these little creatures do not 
enjoy being made captive. They love their wild 
life in the woods, where they are free to scamper 
over the ground; or spreading their legs, to fly 
about among the branches of the trees as they 
will. 

Along the southern coast of Central America 
the children find beautiful mother-of-pearl 
shells on the water's edge. As the sunlight falls 
upon these shells the loveliest colors are seen 
on the clear surface, — delicate pinks and blues 
and violets. After the children are tired of 
playing with the shells they can easily sell them, 
for travelers are ever ready to buy them as 
remembrances of their stay in the country. 

In the forests of Central America there are 
many rubber trees, where Indian boys help their 
fathers gather the sap which will afterwards be 



210 Little Folks of North America 

made into storm coats and shoes to protect the 
children of the United States from rain and 
snow. 

In the lowlands and on the slopes there are 
many banana orchards, which furnish all the 
fruit the little folks and their parents wish for, 
as well as many a shipload for the people of 
other lands. 

Some of the white children of the country live 
on coffee plantations where Negro and Indian 
workmen care for the trees and pick the berries 
for market. 

There are also places in Central America 
where the indigo plant is raised on account of 
the blue dye that is obtained from it. This, too, 
is sent away from the country in ships, as well 
as coffee and mahogany, bananas and rubber. 

Central America is divided into several re- 
publics, each one of which is quite independent 
of the others. As you travel through them 
southwards, the country becomes more and more 
narrow till you come at last to the Isthmus of 
Panama, which joins North and South America. 

The people of the United States are now very 
busy building a canal through this isthmus to 
join together the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



Little Folks of Central America 211 

As you look at the map it seems an easy enough 
matter. 

You think, ''Why, that canal ought to be fin- 
ished in a short time and should not cost much, 
either, for the distance across the canal is not 
more than twenty-six miles at the narrowest 
part." 

But you must remember in the first place that 
the canal can not be dug in a straight line; also, 
that it must pass through the heart of high moun- 
tains and that solid masses of rock must be 
broken up, bit by bit. Then again, the climate 
of the lowlands is very unhealthy during the wet 
season of the year and the workmen suffer from 
fever and other kinds of sickness. Besides, it 
has been hard to get men who understand the 
work to go there. For these reasons and still 
others the building of this canal is a tremendous 
undertaking and will cost billions of dollars be- 
fore it is finished. 

The people of France began it many years 
ago, but gave it up after two-fifths of it had 
been dug. The people of the United States un- 
dertook to finish it, and at present everything 
is going on well. They paid France for what 
she had already done on the canal and bought 



212 Little Folks of North America 

the land through which it is to pass. Moreover, 
they have built comfortable homes for the work- 
men and have done many things to prevent the 
fevers that attack persons so easily on account 
of the damp, hot climate. 

So it has come about that on the Isthmus of 
Panama there are now many American children 
whose fathers are busy on the canal and have 
brought their families to live with them there. 
Schools have been built where these children 
study the same lessons as their playmates at home. 
Mother Nature gives them other lessons too, for 
they see many curious sights in the country 
around them, different trees and plants, different 
flowers and birds from those of their homeland. 
If they enter the forests they can see the parrots 
and monkeys among the tree-tops, and possibly 
wild hogs among the underbrush. They can 
pick flowers which are beautiful, but without 
fragrance. They can tap milk trees and get a 
thick, creamy liquid which will satisfy their 
hunger. They must be watchful, however, in 
this strange country, for immense ants are ever 
ready to sting their tender toes, and poisonous 
snakes lie hidden in the thick grass. 

Not far from the homes of the little Amer- 



Little Folks of Central America 213 

leans there are villages where Chinese children 
are living with their parents, since many China- 
men are at work on the canal. There are 
Negroes, too, as well as the white men and the 
native Indians. 

By and by, when the great undertaking is 
finished and big ships from all parts of the world 
are constantly passing through the canal, it will 
be a very lively place and many will be the vis- 
itors to that part of North America. 



CHAPTER X 

Little Folks of the West Indies 

WHEN Columbus discovered the New 
World he landed on a small island 
southeast of North America where the 
gentle red people greeted him as a god from 
heaven. You probably know the story, — how 
Columbus thought he had reached India, the 
land of silks and spices, and how he accordingly 
called the red men whom he met, Indians. In 
fact India was far away, and instead of landing 
on its shores, the great sailor had reached one 
of a long chain of islands reaching from North 
to South America, which we know to-day as the 
West Indies. 

The red people who greeted Columbus did 
not live long after the coming of the Spaniards 
who followed him. They were made to dig 
gold in the mines for their cruel masters, and 
to do other hard work to which they were not 
used. They soon sickened and died under the 

214 



Little Folks of the West Indies 215 

hard treatment. Many of them, alas, were 
killed by the white men in sport, so that before 
long not an Indian was left in all the islands. 

To-day many white children, whose people 
came from Spain long ago, are living in happy 
homes in the West Indies. Besides them, there 
are hundreds of little Negroes with kinky hair 
and rolling eyes, whose homes are tiny huts 
thatched with palm leaves, and who wear little 
or no clothing. They bask in the sunshine and 
play in the clear waters along the shore and are 
as happy as the day is long. 

The beautiful islands of the West Indies lie 
in the hot belt of the world, and the people who 
live there know but two seasons, a wet and a 
dry. For several months rain falls every day, 
— not all day long, however, keeping the boys 
and girls indoors, but there are heavy showers 
every morning, after which the world looks love- 
lier than ever. It is far pleasanter then than 
in the dry season, when the trees and plants 
lose their freshness and the dust is thick upon 
everything around. 

Although the West Indies lie in the hot belt, 
yet cool breezes from the ocean blow over the 
land throughout the year so that the people who 



2i6 Little Folks of North America 

live there do not suffer from the heat. The 
white children wear thin linen and cotton gar- 
ments, and instead of the meat and blood soup 
so necessary to the little Eskimo, they have cool- 
ing drinks made with limes and lemons, and 
they eat freely the delicious fruits that are so 
plentiful. They are not fond of lively games 
like football and baseball, which are such favor- 
ites with many American children. Instead, 
they spend many hours in hammocks among 
groves of orange and breadfruit trees. 

These children go to school for two hours of 
the early morning and two in the late afternoon, 
but when the sun is bright in the heavens and 
the air is hot they stay at home to rest and sleep. 
In many of the homes of the richer people the 
children take their breakfast of rolls, and coffee 
or chocolate in bed, then get up to study their 
lessons with a governess who lives with the 
family. 

Some of the islands of the West Indies have 
been built up, bit by bit, by the little coral insects 
of the sea. Others are the tops of mountains 
resting on the bed of the ocean; most of them 
are broken up into deep valleys and high hills, 



Little Folks of the West Indies 217 

among which are many strange plants and ani- 
mals. 

Not many years ago there was a war between 
Spain and the United States. It lasted but a 
short time, and when it came to an end Spain 
agreed to give up her rights in the West Indies. 
Porto Rico, one of the most important islands, 
became a part of the United States, and Cuba, 
the largest island of all, was made a republic. 
Since that time many Americans have gone to 
live in the West Indies to carry on business in 
the cities, or raise sugar and coffee on the plan- 
tations. 

When the Spaniards had no more Indians to 
work for them, they sent ships to Africa for 
Negroes who should serve them as slaves on 
their plantations. Now, however, the Negroes 
have all been freed. Hayti, one of the islands, 
is divided into two small republics of black peo- 
ple. In the other islands most of the workmen 
are black, for these people can bear a great deal 
of heat and can stay all day long in the sugar 
and tobacco fields without harm, when white 
men would suffer from sunstroke. 



2i8 Little Folks of North America 

Hurricanes. 

There is one time of the year which the chil- 
dren of the West Indies do not enjoy. This is 
the season of hurricanes. It is because of these 
that most of the houses are only one story high, 
for the winds are so strong and terrible then 
that the strongest buildings are in danger. 

As the time draws near when hurricanes are 
expected, boats are drawn up along the shore, 
roofs are patched and made tight, and everyone 
watches the sky for the dread signs. Then, as 
the clouds gather and the birds take flight into 
the depths of the forest, the children run home 
to their parents for safety. If they live in the 
country the whole family will sometimes leave 
the house and seek safety in a stone cavern, 
built on purpose for their protection in the hur- 
ricane season. There the people will stay till 
the wind has done its work and passed on. 
When they leave their hiding-place they often 
find that great harm has been done; noble trees 
lie stretched on the ground, the crops have been 
destroyed, and the glass of the house windows 
is shattered. They look about them at the 
world that is once more so beautiful and peace- 



Little Folks of the West Indies 219 

ful, and take long breaths as they think, ^Ter- 
haps there will be no more danger for us for 
another long year and that is a long way off. 
We will not worry." 

In the Woods. 

There are no large animals in the forests of 
the West Indies to frighten the children, but 
among the grasses and beautiful plants that grow 
everywhere about them there are many insects 
that might do them harm. Scorpions, which 
belong to the spider family, may give painful 
bites, and centipedes with their hundred legs, 
must also be watched for. Then there are mos- 
quitoes without number, and chigos as the chil- 
dren call them, which creep between the tender 
skins of the white people's toes and make poison- 
ous sores, but seldom trouble those of the Ne- 
groes. 

^T must not go far into the woods when I am 
alone," think many small boys and girls, for they 
are afraid they may meet a wild dog which they 
are quite sure is a most fierce and dangerous ani- 
mal. But the children have little to fear on 
this account, for wild dogs are so scarce that 
few people have ever met them. Long ago in 



220 Little Folks of North America 

Mexico, in the time of the Aztecs, and in the 
West Indies before the coming of the white men 
there, it is said there were such creatures in the 
forests, but now they are rare indeed. 

Sometimes the children meet a strange kind 
of army when they are walking in the woods or 
driving along the country roads. This army is 
composed of huge land crabs who go once a 
year from their home on the mountain sides to 
the sea. There are often hundreds in this army, 
which marches slowly but steadily onward, 
through patches of woods, across roads, and over 
fields of tobacco. After the journey is once be- 
gun, it is said that the crabs do not rest till the 
ocean lies before them. 

The children of the West Indies spend much 
time training beautiful parrots caught in the 
woods not far from their homes ; they gather 
firebugs so brilliant that on summer evenings 
the tiny insects light up their gardens, making 
them appear like fairyland; they can listen to 
the singing-tree that makes a soft cooing noise 
when the breeze stirs its branches; they can 
gather limes and lemons, breadfruit and oranges 
in their own groves. 



Little Folks of the West Indies 221 

Among the Sugar-canes. 

Many children of the West Indies live on 
large plantations where tobacco and sugar are 
raised. As you drive along through the country 
you will pass broad fields covered with tobacco 
plants whose glossy leaves spread out in the sun- 
light. Workmen are constantly busy caring for 
the plants and watching lest troublesome insects 
injure the leaves. 

Again, you will see before you wide fields of 
what seems at first to be. corn, but as you draw 
nearer you discover that the stalks are much 
taller. It is the sugar-cane which grows so high 
that a man on horseback may hide himself in 
its midst. A great deal of the West Indian 
sugar is raised in Cuba where the plantations are 
so large that they seem like small villages in 
themselves. 

Let us visit the children of a sugar planter. 
We pass through a wide driveway of beautiful 
trees and arrive in front of a large, one-story 
house with wide verandas. Flowering vines 
trail over the trellises. The door is opened by 
a smiling Negro maid with a gaily-colored 'ker- 



222 Little Folks of North America 

chief wound around her woolly head. She 
shows you into the drawing-room where a dark- 
eyed lady in white is sitting in a lounging chair. 
It is the mother of your little Cuban friends, 
whom you have come to visit. She speaks to 
you in a sweet, low voice and smiles so pleasantly 
that you feel at home at once. 

A moment afterwards the children appear. 
They are slim and dark-skinned like their 
mother; perhaps they are bare-footed, or they 
may have sandals on their feet. They take de- 
light in making you welcome, and in showing 
you over the plantation. First, they wish you 
to see their gardens, where roses and lilies, 
oleanders and jessamines fill the air with sweet- 
ness. 

After this, it may be, they call to a young 
Negro not much older than themselves, who 
leads some ponies from the stable so that you 
may all ride over the plantation, since it stretches 
over the country for several miles. 

In a few minutes you are out in the sugar 
fields where you are obliged to look up to see 
the tops of the canes. They are jointed like 
corn-stalks, and contain a sweet liquid, as you 
find out after breaking off a young cane and 



Little Folks of the West Indies 223 

chewing it. The white overseer is riding here 
and there, directing the Negroes at their work, 
for the cane is ripe and the men are busy cutting 
it down and piling it in loads to be taken to the 
mill. 

You follow one of these loads and soon reach 
the sugar mill where iron rollers crush the canes 
and squeeze out the juice. In another building 
near by there are big fires over which the sweet 
syrup is kept boiling in copper pans until it 
is so thick that it will form into crystals. Then 
it is poured into wooden coolers; last of all, 
when it is quite cold, it is placed in hogsheads 
with holes in the bottom. There it is left for 
several weeks while the molasses drips, drop by 
drop, through the holes, leaving the clear sugar 
inside. 

Your little Cuban friends may tell you with 
much pride that their island home is the largest 
sugar market in the world and that the hogs- 
heads of sugar you have just seen will be sent to 
the city of Havana not far aw^ay and there be 
loaded on ships which wil carry the sugar to 
the United States and other countries. 

No doubt the little Cubans will ask you if 
you have seen the big fortress called Morro 



224 Little Folks of North America 

Castle which defends the harbor of Havana. 
It is so strong they feel quite sure that enemies 
would be afraid to pass it. 

Before you leave the plantation your friends 
take you to visit the homes of the Negro work- 
men, w^hich are only small huts. Many of them 
have small gardens where melons and sweet po- 
tatoes are sure to be found. Although the huts 
are small, the families who live in them are 
large, and groups of little "darkies" some of 
whom are quite naked, are playing about and 
smile as you pass them, showing broad rows of 
white teeth, and rolling their eyes in such a 
funny way that you laugh in spite of yourself. 

The children of the West Indies have good 
reasons to be happy and loving. The people do 
not need to work hard; a little food and a few 
clothes, a simple home and a hammock to swing 
in, are enough to make anyone comfortable in 
the hot lands. How different such a life is from 
the toiling and struggle of the people of the 
far north, who meet danger and trouble every 
day in their search for the wild animals which 
furnish them with all they have, — food, fuel, 
and clothing. 



SEP 29 ^^^^ 



